


From Ashes

by heatherlynn22



Category: Chris Evans - Fandom, Chris Evans AU - Fandom, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Divorce, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family Drama, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Cheating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23336287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heatherlynn22/pseuds/heatherlynn22
Summary: Is there a place in the world that can magically mend your broken heart? After losing everything, Harper Dylan is willing to make the trip and give it a shot. She desperately needs to find herself again and refuses to let her father’s hot caretaker, Chris, distract her. Little does Harper know, there’s more to the sexy handyman than meets the eye.
Relationships: Chris Evans (Actor)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 62





	1. Daddy Issues

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s note: It was the look that Chris Evans had in The Red Sea Diving Resort that inspired this fic (because, I mean, WoW!) But this is an AU Story and not an Ari Levinson fic.  
> I'm so stoked to finally start sharing this story with you!

_Everyone has daddy issues, right?_

That's what Harper Chambers told herself as she boarded her father's private jet headed to his empty villa in Italy. Harper had always promised herself that she'd never accept any of her father's outlandish offers, but here she was, surrounded by exquisite luxury, and she didn't like it one little bit.

You see, Harper's father, Jonathan Dylan CEO and founder of Dylan Industries, always tried to solve every one of his four daughter's problems with his bottomless wallet. If it was all the same to _Mr. Emotionally Unavailable Big Business Powerhouse,_ he'd rather support his children financially than emotionally.

But once Harper was old enough to know better, she refused to let her father buy her. Ever since she could remember, all Harper had wanted was an attentive father, not a new designer handbag or a shopping spree. Unlike her three younger half sisters who made good use of their platinum cards and thought nothing of it. Probably because they never doubted their father's affection and were used to him bailing them out of whatever situation they had gotten themselves into.

But Harper had been the rare Dylan daughter that, as of yet, had never really needed any of his grand interventions or gestures. Because, for the most part, his oldest daughter had always prided herself on paying her own way and having her shit together.

But here she was, boarding her father's private Gulfstream while all of her earthly belongings were being loaded beneath the plane and her three dogs sniffed around and bothered the flight attendants.

Harper wasn't sure what she was going to do with herself once she got to Italy; she didn't even speak Italian or know if the magazine that she worked for as their head graphic designer would allow her to continue working for them while she was out of the country. Harper slumped down in her plush seat and wondered what was Italian for "pathetic loser."

The last time that she'd been to Italy, Harper had been six years old. She'd always wanted to go back and was positive that the country was going to be as lovely as she remembered. But Harper wasn't traveling there to go sightseeing. In fact if someone were to imply that she wasn't really vacationing in the conventional sense, but simply running away, Harper wouldn't bother correcting them.

But why Italy of all places? Now that she had caved in and took advantage of her father's vast resources, Harper could have gone anywhere in the world. Well, it wasn't as if she had randomly thrown a dart against a map. The only reason that Harper was headed to Italy was because Jonathan Dylan, in a rare moment of warm parental attention, had insisted that the beautiful rural Italian countryside would fix her the way it had fixed him decades ago when her mother divorced him when she was a little girl.

Harper had been there with him during that difficult time, but didn't remember the old dusty villa as anything special. But ever since she'd been a child, her father had always boasted that the time he spent at his 'Villa Dalle Ceneri' had healed his broken heart and made it possible for him to meet and fall in love with his second wife, Catherine. Not to mention later have three more children; Harper's three half sisters. All of which had no idea where Harper was heading.

Maddison, a 25 year old aspiring actress ( _"Aspiring"_ was a very generous term to use in her case. Maddison was more interested in the LA club scene and traveling back to Boston to get a new infusion of cash from their father than honing her craft and winning an Oscar.) If Maddison knew where Harper was heading, she'd be pissed off and claim that Harper was just being dramatic to get attention. Maddison Dylan's pension for projection wasn't anything new to Harper.

Harper's other half sister, Tiffany, a 22 year old Instagram influencer (who was surprisingly successful given her lack of skill or education) would pout and demand to know why she couldn't go, as well. But Harper knew that if Tiffany had the keys to the villa, she'd fly in an army of people that Harper had never met and surely trash the place in less than 24 hours. Not exactly Harper's idea of a peaceful healing sanctuary.

And then there was Ivy, the youngest of all the Dylan sisters. Ivy was still in high school and had just made the honour roll for the second year in a row (and was secretly Harper's favourite sibling out of the bunch.) Ivy, bless her heart, would be outraged by the situation that her big sister was in and want to fight every one of Harper's battles for her.

Harper loved her youngest sister to pieces and didn't want to upset her; especially before finals. She'd spent most of her life looking after Ivy and hated that she didn't have the emotional energy to take care of her now. The ironic fact that Harper was the one that needed taking care of at the moment, was not lost on her.

Each one of her half sisters would have a strong reaction in some form or another if they knew that Harper was secretly leaving the country with her tail tucked between her legs. She'd had never been one for impulsive and rash decisions so Harper figured that she'd end up shocking everyone she knew and she was in no condition to look after anyone else's feelings right now. Evident by the fact that Harper stubbornly refused to check her phone to try and hide from their judgements like an ostrich sticking their head in the sand.

But even though she wasn't the adventurous type, the promise of a beautiful change of scenery and putting an ocean between her and her problems was too tempting an offer for Harper to refuse. Harper wasn't even sure if she bought into all of her father's fanciful notions about the villa, but at this point, she'd try just about anything to fix her broken heart. She barely knew herself anymore and it was a jarring feeling that she had no idea how to deal with.

But of course, Harper would have to go through all of this "fixing and healing" that her father had promised by herself, since Jonathan Dylan hadn't set foot in his villa once it had magically fixed him.

_Typical._

God forbid that her father get his hands dirty and give his oldest daughter a hug or a shoulder to cry on. Apparently, _"Mergers and acquisitions just don't happen on their own, Harper."_ Fuck, she really hated it when her father spoke to her as if she were a child.

Harper tried to keep her shit together as she got ready for take off but could barely fake a smile for her father's flight attendants. She hated not treating her father's staff with the respect and kindness that they never got from Maddison and Tiffany. But for some reason they seemed to understand her dark mood, and Harper wondered if they knew her situation and if they pitied her.

Harper let out a deep sigh as she buckled her seatbelt. She couldn't believe she was in this predicament. It was still impossible for her to process the fact that she had lost everything she had held dear in the span of a week. She felt like such a sell out. Year after stubborn year, Harper had refused to accept her father's efforts to buy her love and affection. All it took for her to throw away everything that she had always stood for was to walk into her bedroom last week and find her husband of two years passionately fucking a random, yet extremely beautiful, blonde women in their bed.

Everyone has a breaking point, right? And broken was exactly how Harper felt as she felt the powerful jet speed down the runway and take off into the clear blue sky.

Harper had surprised herself by remaining oddly calm the day that she had walked in on her husband, Zac, and his mistress in some odd kamasutra like position. But for as silent as Harper had been, her brain had been screaming at her that she had failed and that she would never have the family that she had always longed for.

Her and Zac had been on their third round of IVF and Harper had their entire future planned out in painstaking detail. A gorgeous, naked, 20 something blonde woman panicking and crying in her bedroom at 11:45 in the afternoon, was not part of Harper's plans at all.

It's odd what a person's brain remembers during an event like that. Harper couldn't remember a single word that Zac had said as he climbed off the woman and started apologizing and trying to explain himself. But Harper could remember clear as day how beautiful and curvaceous the blonde woman had been and how her and Zac's wedding picture was laying face down on her nightstand.

To this day, the blonde woman still didn't have a name. But Harper recalled how embarrassed Zac's mistress had been to be caught in such a vulnerable situation. The woman's flawless white skin turned bright shades of red when she realized that her and Zac had been caught. Harper had actually felt bad for her.

Instead of dealing with the man that she had always believed would make a great father one day, Harper had calmly handed the woman the robe that Zac had bought her Christmas last year to cover herself up with. She might even have offered her a cup of coffee, as well, Harper couldn't exactly remember.

But the sad truth was, that pathetic moment wasn't even Harper's true breaking point. It really should have been, but she'd have to wait to hit rock bottom two days later.

Harper was ashamed to admit that, after she had broken out of her comatose like shock, and polished off a bottle of wine with her half sister Maddison, she was ready to forgive her cheating ass husband and take him back.

Even remembering how stupid a notion that was made Harper wince in her leather airplane seat. Maybe she really wasn't the Dylan sister that had her shit together, after all. This villa had better have some if it's old magic left; she's gunna need it because she really didn't like who she was at the moment. She felt like a stranger to herself. A very very fucked up and sad stranger.

After witnessing for herself what her husband was capable of, Harper didn't even yell or scream or kick the cheating asshole out of the apartment. She barely stood up for herself and, in retrospect, she regretted being so calm and collected when she should have kicked Zac's ass to the curb instead of meekly moving into the guest room and ordering new bedding and a new mattress online.

It's not as though Harper was a doormat...well, she'd admit that that topic was still up for debate. It was just that the marriage vows that Harper had taken 2 years ago weren't as sacred to her as the promises that she had made to herself where her marriage was concerned.

From day one, she had been committed to having a more successful marriage than her parents had and Harper Dylan wasn't a quitter and she hated losing. But even after Zac's betrayal, Harper was determined to fix her marriage and still have a baby with him. Harper was sure that this round of IVF was going to work and had kept her eyes on the prize. She had told herself that all of this bullshit would just be a distant memory once she became a mother and got to hold her baby in her arms.

But Harper, sadly, had no idea just how badly she had really lost.

Everything came crashing down two nights ago when a sound of a slap had woken Harper up from a deep sleep. She almost thought that she had dreamt the sound but then there was another slap followed by hushed angry voices coming from somewhere inside her Boston home.

She had no idea that her whole world was about to fall apart when she tiptoed out of the guest room and overheard the fight that Zac was having with her half sister Maddison down in their foyer.

Harper had believed that the nameless blonde woman was her rock bottom and that it couldn't get any worse than that. But boy was she ever wrong. Harper had no idea what was in store for her as she eavesdropped on the argument that Maddison was having with Zac.

As it turned out, when Zac had slept with the mysterious blonde, Zac hadn't just been cheating on his wife. He had been cheating on Maddison, as well.

Harper had no idea that her sister had been sleeping with her husband or for how long. All she could do was blink as she watched their lover's quarrel play out beneath her and had to grip the banister to keep her knees from giving out.

In true Maddison fashion, her half sister was so dramatic and passionate about Zac's betrayal that Harper felt as though she were still dreaming and had walked into a Spanish telenovela. Maddison was furious with him and felt entitled to Zac's fidelity as if his wife (her own sister) wasn't even a factor in the whole situation.

Everything hurt after that. So much pain flooded her heart that Harper quickly went numb to keep from feeling it all. Zac and Maddison had been two of the most important people in her life for so long.

All Harper could think of was how Maddison had been spending a lot more time in Boston and had claimed that she had wanted to be there for her as she went through her IVF treatments. Harper actually believed that her sister had cared about her and had put her needs first for once. Such complete and utter bullshit. Harper felt so stupid.

It's not every day that you find out that your husband has been cheating on you with at least two women. But in the midst of Harper's despair she, at least, found some humour in the situation.

Harper had shocked both of them when she began to laugh and made her presence known. Once the first giggle escaped Harper's lips she couldn't stop herself from hysterically laughing at the fact that Maddison was taking Zac's cheating worse than she had.

"You don't have to give me my hormone shot in the morning." Were the last words that Harper had said to her cheating husband before packing an overnight bag and leaving with her dogs. Forgiving Zac for cheating on her with a hot nameless blonde woman was one thing, but Harper had no clue how to forgive Zac and her sister for what they had done to her.

Now, Harper was flying thirty eight thousand feet in the air to her father's old villa in Italy of all places. But in her defence, Harper really didn't remember calling her father from her hotel room to let him know that she was a failure and her entire life had fallen apart. She'd been halfway through her quest to clean out her overpriced hotel minibar before she had somehow decided to drunk dial her dear old dad.

Side note. What kind of stable 33 year old woman drunk dials her father? Maybe trying to become a mother was a bad idea, after all.

\------------------

Nearly 10 hours later, Harper was awoken by her driver as they drove through the gates of her father's Tuscan estate. It was nearly 1am and as curious as she was to see it, she couldn't make out a damn thing in the dark. The last time that she had been there she was a child so she'd have to wait until the morning to fully understand her surroundings and discover what she had gotten herself into.

Her father's secretary had told her that a caretaker would be there to greet her and had insisted that the villa was ready for her visit. But the whole house was dark and Harper didn't have a key.

The language barrier made it impossible for Harper to understand what her Italian driver was saying as he unloaded her bags. But apparently, he was not interested in waiting with her to find out if she could get safely into the house before he left.

"Well, isn't this just great, huh, Penny?" Harper sighed to her four year old brindle english mastiff as the rental car drove away. She suspected that her massive 150 pound rescue dog had made her driver nervous from the start, but she had no idea that he would just abandon her in the middle of the night because Penny seemed a little scary looking.

Fortunately, her other two dogs were considerably smaller and hadn't taken up as much room in the car as her mastiff did. In fact, Louis and Coco, the white maltese and mini labradoodle that Harper had adopted when her younger sister Tiffany was too irresponsible to look after them, were so small that they fit inside their dog carrier bag and had stayed there for the majority of the ride.

"Let's see if we can find another way to get in." Harper suggested to her gentle giant of a dog as she took her off her leash and let her sniff around a bit.

Even in the dark, Harper could tell that her father's magic villa was an impressive size. After she found the main door locked, Harper started to explore in the hopes of finding another way inside because she couldn't wait to crawl into the nearest bed. Time would tell if her exhaustion was due to jet lag, or the impending dark depression she felt seconds away from careening into.

But for as terrible as she felt as she walked around the stone building, Harper could smell jasmine in the air and as her eyes adjusted to the dark she found many lovely sitting areas that she figured a professional had designed in order to maximize the views and encourage outdoor entertaining. Old habits die hard and Harper found herself longing for a time when her and Zac could bring their future children there for vacation. It was still hard to come to terms with the fact that that would never happen.

Maybe Zac and Maddison could bring their future kids here one day, a self loathing voice in Harper's head suggested.

Before Harper felt too sorry for herself, she turned the corner of the large house and was impressed to find a large pool in the back that hadn't been there when she was a child. A lot of work had been done on the home over the years and if she knew her father, no expense had been spared. If only he had spent some of that money on cutting her key, she wouldn't be fumbling around in the dark.

Harper was about to give up and curl up on one of the pool's many large lounge chairs to sleep, when she heard what sounded like moaning coming from the far side of the house, just past the pool area.

Penny heard it too, and before Harper knew it, she was chasing after her curious dog and praying that there wasn't an Italian axe murder lurking about ready to take her out of her misery.

 _"Oh, bene! Oh bene!"_ Harper heard an Italian female voice groan over and over again as she got closer to the sounds. _"Non fermarti! Si papa."_

"Don't call me that." A breathless male voice demanded in the dark with an unmistakably thick Boston accent.

Harper was stunned by the situation that she had just stumbled into. Now that her eyes had fully adjusted to the dark, she could make out a naked couple having sex outside against a stone gazebo only a few yards away. The large tall man had very impressively hooked the woman's legs over his strong forearms and was holding her up as he enthusiastically fucked her with abandon and made her cry out in pleasure.

Even though Harper's mouth hung open in shock and a deep blush burned on her cheeks, she was mesmerized and couldn't help but wonder when the last time she'd been fucked like that; if ever.

Unfortunately, Penny, bless her heart, didn't know any better and began to approach the couple to innocently say hello. Harper tried in vain to frantically whisper after her large dog and demand that she return to her side, but Penny was just too friendly for her own good.

Harper hoped to give the couple their privacy and not die of embarrassment. But soon, the woman's passionate cries turned into terrified screams when she saw the 150 pound mastiff stalking towards her in the dark; surely looking like a beast from a horror movie.

"Whoa! Hi there, fella." The naked bearded man tried to make sense of the situation as he set the screaming Italian woman down on her feet and she ran towards the house. Hopefully to find her clothes.

As naked as the man was in the moonlight, he seemed curious of his new visitor and let Penny smell the palm of his hand before he patted the top of her head.

"She's friendly!" Was the only thing that Harper could think to call out, realizing that the man spoke english. Adopting a dog like Penny, Harper was used to people being afraid of her at first. Even tall muscular men, like the naked stranger tended to be overly cautious when first meeting Penny. "Ummm, Hi. I'm Harper. That's Penny, it was a long flight. She's just saying hello."

"Hi." The naked man faced her with his hands on his narrow hips, making no attempt to cover himself up as Penny laid down at his feet waiting to be played with. "Harper Chambers, I take it. I thought you were flying in tomorrow."

"At this point, I kinda wish I had." Harper quipped as she tried not to look at his rather large erection that was still standing firmly at attention. But Harper failed miserably and couldn't take her eyes off his manhood and she watched as he pulled his condom off and tossed it in a small bin beside the gazebo. The stranger was extremely well endowed but Harper had to admit that his entire physique was rather remarkable. But more than that, Harper could make out how blue his eyes were, even in the dark. His eyes found hers and they seemed to take her breath away the longer he gazed at her.

"I'm naked." The man stated the obvious as he ran his hands through his long shaggy hair and puffed out an amused defeated laugh at the situation he was in. "I'm Chris. The... the caretaker, I guess. Mind maybe turning around."

"Oh shit! Yes, of course. I'm so sorry." Harper blurted out her apology as she turned around and fixed her hair as she let her other two dogs, Louis and Coco, out their carrier bag. After a day of traveling she was sure that she looked like a mess, but it was oddly refreshing to realize that now because she was here in Italy, it didn't really matter what she looked like.

"How many dogs did you bring with you?" Chris called out as he casually jumped into his jeans and walked over to the patio and turned on the backyard lights, illuminating the lush well manicured grounds.

The back of the house was actually really pretty, but all Harper could see in her mind's eye was the image of Chris, naked and standing out there in the dark with the moonlight highlighting all of his defined muscles. As her heart continued to thump in her chest, Harper was sure that majestic image would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life.

"Just the three. But Penny really counts as an extra 2 or 3." Harper shyly smiled as she slowly turned around to face him now that he had pants on. The backyard lights made it possible for Harper to get a good look at Chris's face and she couldn't get over how handsome he was even with his full overgrown beard covering his face.

When her father's secretary mentioned a caretaker, this was not the kind of man that Harper was expecting at all. Chris in his thirties and almost looked like a buff sexy Jesus with his long shaggy hair that would have nearly touched his shoulders if it didn't flip up at the ends in a really cute way.

"Did you want to go check on your girlfriend?" Harper suggested as Chris played with her dogs. "She seemed pretty freaked out."

"Naw, she'll be fine." Chris insisted with a charming smile, more focus on the playful antics of her dogs than the woman he was just having sex with.

As he got to know her three dogs, Chris could tell that his boss's daughter was trying not to check him out and he enjoyed the attention. Harper Chambers wasn't at all what Chris had expected when he got the call that one of Jonathan Dylan's daughters would be taking over the villa. Chris was expecting a superficial princess decked out in designer clothes. But Harper had a mature uptight quality about her that he found impossible not to mess with. If she had glasses on Chris would almost think she had a sexy cute librarian vibe with her dressed in her modest business like attire. Chris has already met Jonathan's other three daughters and assumed that Harper must have taken after his first wife. Who travels in a blazer?

Harper was nothing like the vivacious European women he'd been indulging in since he'd been in Italy, but there was something about her that peeked Chris's interest. As boring as she might dress, those big blue eyes of hers were quite remarkable and had made Chris take a second...or maybe a third look at her. He hated the idea of sharing his space with anyone, but the fact that Harper wasn't hard on the eyes, made Chris warm up a little bit to her. Besides, it's not like he had a choice; whatever Jonathan Dylan wants, Jonathan Dylan gets. At least his boss had informed him that she didn't need a babysitter.

"I didn't catch her name." Harper asked in a serious voice, trying to change the subject and remind him that the woman he'd just been fucking the life out of still existed.

"Ummm. Emma?" Chris pondered as he led them back to the front of the house to collect her bags and act like a gentleman for once. "No, Greta ...I think. Looks like I didn't catch her name either." He added with a wicked chuckle as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and let one hang out of the corner of his full lips.

Even though Chris was probably the finest looking man that Harper had laid eyes on in a long time, the confident fuckboy vibes that he was giving off left a sour taste in her mouth and Harper couldn't roll her eyes at him hard enough. Who would blame her after everything that she'd just been through back in Boston with Zac. It was time to swear off men, Harper decided. They were all the same.

"Well, I don't know how long I'll be staying." Harper coldly retorted as she pushed up the sleeves to her blazer and stood up straighter. She decided that she wasn't here to be nice or to make friends and the thought of letting another person push her around made her sick to her stomach. "So if you wouldn't mind keeping your future 'Emmas and Gretas' to your bedroom while I'm here, that would be very much appreciated. Also, I don't smoke and I really hate the smell." Harper added with cold narrow eyes as he lit his cigarette and she fanned the second hand smoke away from her. "So if you could please, keep it away from me and out the house, that would be great. "

"Aye aye, ma'am." Chris nodded as his smile slowly faded. 

"Do I need to get the house cleaned?"

"No ma'am, that wont be necessary." Chris was feeling defensive now that Harper was laying on the attitude and acting like she was his boss. He really wasn't a heavy smoker, it was a habit that he had mostly picked up during his time in Italy. For the most part, smoking made Chris feel like a different person and he'd enjoyed that feeling. But he knew he needed to quit before he went back to Boston, but he really didn't appreciate a stranger being so judgemental about his new habit.

No matter how put together and this woman appeared to be, Chris should have expected nothing less from one of the Dylan girls. From the little experience he had with Jonathan's other daughters, Chris knew that they were all born with a silver spoon in their mouths and a bad attitude to match. Chris couldn't stand people like that. It didn't matter how attractive Harper was, having her move into the villa with him was bound to be a disaster.

"Would you care for a tour of the house now, Mrs. Chambers." Chris asked as he put out his cigarette and resisted the urge to sarcastically bow to her. "Or would you rather wait until the morning when Viola arrives?"

"Viola still works here?" Harper tried to stay cold and professional, but hearing that she might see an old face made her happier than she'd been in awhile. But Chris had quickly caught on to her positive reaction to the villa's old housekeeper and Harper wanted to smack the cocky smirk off his face when he spotted her reaction. "The morning will be fine." Harper snapped before she let the hot caretaker think that she was flirting with him.

Just then, Emma or Greta appeared, fully clothed in a beautiful flowy summer dress, and sheepishly waved to Harper and Chris as she began to walk down the path to leave the property.

"Buona notte, Papa." The pretty Italian woman winked at Chris as she scurried by.

"I said don't call me-." Chris ordered with a frustrated sigh but dropped his shoulders in defeat and shook his head. "Notte."

Harper didn't know a word of Italian but could figure out for herself that Papa meant Daddy. And apparently Chris hated being called Daddy, even by smokin' hot Italian women that meant it as a sexy term of endearment.

Maybe Harper wasn't the only one with daddy issues?


	2. Villa Dalle Ceneri

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and Harper get off on the wrong foot.

Harper had no idea what time it was when she rolled over and felt the bright Italian sun on her face the next day.

Jet lag had hit her surprisingly hard and, for a moment or two, Harper believed that she was back home in Boston and was late for work. But, as she slowly woke up and smelled the lovely scent of lemons and herbs in the air, she realized that she was in Italy; more than 4000 miles away from the place she had once thought of as home.

"Mornin' Penny." Harper mumbled when she recognized the scent of her mastiff's warm breath breathing on her before she had fully opened her eyes. Normally, Penny slept on the floor beside her, but being in a new place, poor Penny needed to be a tad bit closer to her beloved owner and unfortunately took up more than half of the bed as a result.

As soon as Harper's first words passed her lips, Louis and Coco perked up at the foot of her bed, excited to know that she was finally awake and didn't hesitate to crawl over Penny to get to her. Penny was so patient with those two little pups so Harper took a second to praise her before she dealt with her two little rascals.

"Okay, okay guys!" Harper smiled as the tiny white maltese and yellow mini labradoodle tried to lick her face. "I'm up, I'm up!"

For as annoyed as she was by her wake up call, Harper was so happy that those two little guys were finally happy and healthy after all of the suffering that they had gone through with their original owner during the year of their lives.

When Harper's 22 year old half sister, Tiffany, had come home with them, Harper was shocked to see Tiffany treat her new puppies more like fashion accessories than living breathing animals. Evident by the cringeworthy names Tiffany had given them right off the bat; Louis after Louis Vuitton, and Coco after Coco Chanel.

Apparently Tiffany was convinced that they would look great on her Instagram page, but Harper knew that Tiffany hadn't thought her decision through, and boy was Harper ever right. By the time Harper had put her foot down and stepped in, those poor little pups were so neglected and malnourished that Harper couldn't live with herself if she didn't rescue (aka steal) them from her clueless sister and give them a better home.

Tiffany had no idea how to look after herself, let alone two dogs that needed time and attention to train them. Not to mention meet their basic needs like food, water, and exercise. Tiffany insisted that she had learned her lesson but Harper made her promise that she would never impulsively buy another living thing because it went with her outfit or fit her social media aesthetic. That was six months ago, and so far no new animals had been purchased; thank god.

But, looking back, standing up to Tiffany was only half the battle that Harper had to fight. Zac had barely tolerated her mastiff Penny, and pretty much hated pets in general. But even though Zac disapproved of Penny, Harper had every intention of nursing the two little designer dogs back to health and showering them with all the love and the training that they deserved. But, as suspected, Zac had a fit the moment she'd walked through the door with Louis and Coco. Harper thought that he'd understand why she had to help them and hoped that he'd warm up to them one day. But sadly that never happened.

Having seen the way her marriage had ended, Harper regretted the way she had always given Zac the benefit of the doubt and had seen good qualities in him that simply didn't exist. From the beginning, Zac had convinced her that he wanted a family and that becoming a father was just as important to him as becoming a mother was to her. But looking back, the fiasco with the dogs probably should have been Harper's first hint that she had married an asshole. What kind of man doesn't like dogs? 

As she lay in bed, and cuddled her three dogs, a part of Harper wondered if going against his wishes had been the beginning of the end of her marriage. In all honesty, Harper had no idea when the end had truly started. 

But, as usual, Zac's disapproval always hit Harper hard and she tried to keep the three dogs out of his hair as much as possible. Harper hated remembering how shitty it felt when Zac was mad at her. He had always found a way to make her feel as though it was her fault that he was unhappy or unsatisfied with something. Almost as if it were her job to make him happy and no matter how hard she worked, she always came up short. Maybe Zac had some good qualities buried down there somewhere, but he really did make guilt tripping an art form.

In his defence, Harper had already been on thin ice with Zac after she had brought Penny home a year earlier. Harper had been volunteering at an animal shelter and had formed a bond with the large dog during her time there and couldn't bear to leave Penny behind when Zac insisted that she quit volunteering.

Zac had sat her down one day and explained that since they were trying to get pregnant, Harper needed to focus only on her fertility. To him, that meant her giving up all of the charity duties that he had always considered a waste of time and energy. To this day, Harper wasn't sure why she had listened to him. She still missed the kids at the inner city youth group that she used to help out with and thought about those kids everyday.

But as time went on, Zac had held on to his grudge about her adopting Penny without asking him first and wasn't shy about expressing his disapproval. So maybe the fit that he threw over Louis and Coco was justified. But in the end, Harper loved all three dogs and argued to her husband that every kid needed to have a dog in their life... or three dogs. But Zac had resented the time she spent with the animals and barely tolerated their existence. But as it turned out, Penny, Louis, and Coco were a lot more faithful to her than her cheating husband, so in the end, Harper had no regrets.

Thinking about Zac made Harper's mind naturally travel to finding out about him and Maddison. Harper hugged her pillow as she felt a fresh stab of pain hit her heart as so many questions filled her mind. How does sleeping with anyone with a pulse fit with the family man image that Zac had always sold her? But worse, how would she ever be able to look at her sister again after what she did to her? What could she have possibly done to Maddison to have her want to hurt so badly?

That's the problem with being hurt by the ones that are supposed to love you the most. Hating them hurts so much and in order to heal you need to forgive them to feel whole again. But Harper had no idea how to do that and felt completely lost.

Harper looked to her cell phone sitting on her bedside table and resisted the urge to check her messages or her social media. The magazine that she worked for already knew that she would be gone for the foreseeable future and not working on the next issue. But more importantly, her family was plastered over all of her apps. She had no idea how her other two sisters would react to Maddison's betrayal and in the darkest part of her heart, Harper wondered if they would take Maddison's side and she really didn't want to face that cold possibility.

All that could be waiting for her on her phone was more embarrassment and pain. Harper wasn't ready for all the questions from her concerned friends nor was she ready to see Maddison's happy smiling face on Instagram or any pathetic texts from Zac begging her to come home.

Or worse. No pathetic texts from Zac begging her to come home...or even worse than that...what if Maddison and Zac were out in the open now as a fully fledged couple? The impossible had already happened, so it was difficult for Harper to judge what could be happening at home. What if everyone already knew and was pitying her and realizing what a pathetic loser she was? No husband, no sister...no baby. 

Harper felt an anxiety attack brimming just below the surface as her mind went through all of the worst case scenarios of what could possibly be going on back in Boston. So before getting out of bed Harper opened the drawer of the nightstand and shoved her phone in it to resist temptation. Out of sight out of mind, right? Maybe it wasn't the healthiest thing to do, but it was all she could come up with at the moment.

Harper had a heavy sadness sitting in her chest weighing her down like a rock. But she had come halfway around the world to escape that feeling. So, with a big deep exaggerated sigh, Harper pushed herself out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans and the first t shirt she found in her suitcase.

It felt odd to get dressed so quickly and not worry so much about her appearance. She wasn't even sure if she had packed her flat iron with her. To Zac, her appearance had always been so important to him. In fact, he insisted on a makeover a month into their relationship.

Funny how all of Zac's red flags were so blindingly apparent now. Who pays for a head to toe makeover for a person that they just started dating? Sure, Harper's look at the time was the result of a little youthful rebellion. Her hair colour of the moment was an attention grabbing silvery blue colour that successfully kept her step mother from insisting that she attended all of the boring cocktail parties that she held for her father.

Zac just had a charming way about him that always made it seem like his wishes were her idea. He was always trying to convey to the world that he was more successful than he was and insisted that his girlfriend (and later his wife) match that farce. Making him happy became Harper's drug of choice, so she put her crazy hair days behind her and tried to look the part of a successful upper class housewife.

It's not like Zac had rules for her written down. But after time Harper had figured out that Zac wouldn't like anything too revealing or cheap. No leggings or hoodies or god forbid she should have a bad hair day. No more edgy fashion choices. Only a chic minimal business aesthetic that wouldn't embarrass him. Realizing that those days were behind her made a ghost of a smile cross her lips for the first time in days. Maybe there was a small silver lining to this mess. Besides, there was no one here that she was trying to impress or make happy anyway.

Harper had decided to face the day and find out if there was any truth to the notion that this villa could actually fix her like her father had claimed. She needed to find some kind of strength because feeling so weak and helpless was one of the worst feelings in the world.

"Whatdda say, huh?" Harper asked her three furry friends, who were so used to having to wait until Harper had flat ironed her hair and put her face on before they got their early morning walk. "Wanna explore your new home, guys?"

\-----------

So far, the only part of the villa that Harper had really seen the night before was the master suite... and the erotic moonlit view of the hot caretaker. A vision that Harper tried not to think about, but it's not everyday that you get a front row seat to a show like that. So if Harper was being honest with herself, she really didn't mind that Chris was burned into her memory in all his glory.

But for as hot as Chris was, Harper was not ready to let herself lust after him like a horny teenager. Or lust over anyone for that matter. Even though Harper was coming around to the fact that Zac was truly an asshole, Harper had always been faithful to him; for as much good as that did her. And being suddenly single was just too new of a feeling for her to get used to.

So new, in fact, that her left hand still felt strange and naked without her wedding bands on. Almost as naked as the well endowed hot caretaker that she was sure to run into again at some point. Man, she really had to stop thinking about that hot bearded fuckboy and get started on her new life and figure out what she had gotten herself into.

But for as leery as she was about her father's villa, Harper had already been impressed with the room that she had spent the night in. Everything had been renovated and designed with a modern touch that Harper knew her father hadn't had a single hand in creating; other than signing the cheques for architects, contractors, and interior designers.

The large shower in the ensuite was something out of Architectural Digest and took Harper about 15 minutes to figure out how to use it before she had gone to bed. But as she went out into the hall and looked around, she couldn't help but wonder why her father had spent so much money over the years fixing up a villa that he had no intention of ever visiting. Everything felt so damn right luxurious, nothing like the dusty ancient beat up house that she remembered spending a year in as a kid.

Her step mother Catherine had never been shy about expressing her disdain for the old house and no one could really blame her. After all, Harper's father had bought the place for Harper's mother as a wedding present and the way that he had always resisted selling it after he had remarried was a little bit odd.

Even though Harper's father had a reputation for being a ruthless cutthroat in the business world, he did hold some puzzling eccentric tendencies sometimes.

Harper's parents' original plan had been to fix it up and spend their summers there, but that had never happened. Jonathan had bought it and let it sit empty for years; too busy with building his empire. Her and mother becoming a very distant second priority. It wasn't until Harper's mother abandoned them, that her father decided to leave Boston and spend a year in the villa to try and fix it up; dragging a sad and confused six year old Harper along for the ride.

Maybe he had hoped to win her mother back with a finished Italian summer home, who knows? But, of course, that never happened and Harper hadn't seen her mother since.

As Harper's mind flooded with memories of the terrible year that she had stayed here, she made her way downstairs through the living room to the large fancy kitchen and found a woman arranging some flowers on the grand island in the middle of the room.

"Good morning, bella!" Viola beamed as she wrapped her arms around Harper and gave her a warm hug. "Well, I should say, good afternoon. How was your flight?"

"It was great." Harper smiled as all three dogs happily greeted the petite 70 year old woman.

Harper hadn't seen Viola since she was 7 years old, but she would recognize the woman anywhere. If it weren't for Viola, who knows where her or her father would be now.

As Harper remembered it, it had been Viola that had cared for her and managed to keep her father from drinking himself to death when they had stayed here decades ago. As a thank you, Harper suspected that her father had never taken Viola off his payroll.

Years ago, Jonathan Dylan had been in no shape to care for his daughter after his wife left him. But luckily, Viola took it upon herself to take responsibility for Harper and made sure that she had her needs met while Jonathan had mourned his loss. Not just Harper's physical needs, but her emotional needs. Her father had been far too concerned with his own broken heart to consider the fact that Harper's little heart had been broken, as well, when her mother left.

Fortunately, Viola had bonded with the little American brunette girl and since then, the two of them had stayed in touch, albeit little less as time went on. But Harper was delighted to see her again nonetheless.

"Cuccioli carini!!" Viola exclaimed as Louis and Coco jumped up and placed their little paws on her legs, whereas Penny just sniffed her for a moment and then found a spot to lay down in the sun. "Cute puppies." Viola translated when she could tell that Harper hadn't understood her Italian and continued to praise and encourage the little dogs silly antics.

"The little white guy is Louis and Coco is the curly haired one." Joey giggled as she watched the dogs immediately take to the older woman. Say what you may about those tiny designer dogs, they really were a great judge of character and fell in love with Viola on the spot. "And that big lazy one over there one is Penny. She looks mean, but she's harmless. Really just a really big glorified house cat."

"Bella." Viola beamed as she admired the mastiff all stretched out in front of the large patio windows. "It's lovely to see some life being brought into this house, piccolo."

"This place looks amazing." Harper praised as she looked around the large kitchen which was clearly designed to be the heart of the home. "It's nothing like I remembered."

"Your father has been working on it on and off during the years." Viola explained as she took out some water dishes that had been purchased for her arrival and filled them up for the dogs. "It's hard to anticipate when he'll take an interest in the place."

"Probably whenever him and Catherine have a fight." Harper muttered under her breath.

"I have yet to meet your stepmother." Viola frowned, her eyes filled with concern. "I assume that she doesn't approve of this old place?"

"Catherine is great." Harper back-pedalled, realizing that she sounded bitchy for no reason.

Catherine was never the evil stepmother type. The two of them were civil and friendly with each other, but she and Harper had never really clicked on a deeper level the way some people do with their stepparents.

Harper couldn't help but wonder if Catherine was home right now getting a massage with Maddison and reassuring her daughter that everything would blow over and that sleeping with her sister's husband wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Drama and gossip was not Catherine's style so Harper figured that she was doing some serious downplaying and damage control... probably at her step daughter's expense.

"She just prefers to vacation in the south of France then the rundown Italian villa her husband bought for his first wife." Harper explained as she tried her best to give Viola an honest smile. "Although, it's not so rundown anymore, is it?"

"So much work has been done since then. Would you like me to give you a tour of the grounds, dear?" Viola warmly asked. "Or would you like some lunch?"

"I'd love a tour first, if it isn't too much trouble." Harper asked after taking a deep cleansing breath. "I'd love to see what you guys have done with the place and give the dogs a chance to run around. It's nice to have my schedule completely open for once."

\-----------------

Villa Dalle Ceneri was a remote five acre villa located near the Tuscany coast. Harper had already suspected that the grounds were going to be as lovely as the house itself. But Harper's mouth hung up when she took in the view from the porch and the al fresco eating area just off the kitchen. Apparently, little six year old Harper hadn't been mature enough to notice such a lovely view of the water, but 32 year old Harper appreciated the hell out of it. It was so cool to watch all of the sailboats out on the water that were taking advantage of such a gorgeous day.

No wonder Chris liked to take his women out there to fool around, the view from the back of the villa was simply breathtaking.

"When did the pool go in?" Harper asked Viola as the two women linked arms and began to stroll the grounds.

"After you won your...what is it all in America? Your, all country?"

"All state." Harper kindly corrected her. "I used to swim competitively. But I gave it up a long time ago."

"Why is that?"

"I really don't know." Harper lied. She used to love swimming but no one had ever taken the time to question why she had stopped. Harper wasn't exactly proud of the fact that she had probably quit because early on in their relationship, Zac would often compliment her silky smooth straight hair and getting it wet all the time brought out her curls too often to manage it. In retrospect, it was such a stupid reason to give up something she loved to do. "I was on my college swim team for a while, but...I dunno." Harper shrugged as she tried to block out her early years with Zac. "Maybe I just fell out of love with it. I wasn't that good at it anyway."

"Well, your father must have believed in you." Viola kindly defended him as she gestured to the large swimming pool. Implying that her father had put in the pool just for her.

"He's never seen me swim." Harper countered, trying to stay as pleasant as possible when the subject of her father came up. But it was hard to remain in control when she was already so emotionally raw. "And it must have slipped his mind to tell me that he had one put in here. A developer must have insisted that it would add to its resale value."

Harper could see the disappointment flash behind the old lady's eyes and she hated that she had brought the mood down with her issues with her absentee father. Viola was a kind hearted woman that had wanted nothing more than for her than to have a happy life after she had left her care years ago. And here Harper was, ruining the old lady's fantasies and being a brat.

"You were always a good translator for him, Viola." Harper smiled as she patted Viola's arm. "And I don't just mean translating Italian."

"Your father has always been a complicated man. But he does love you, piccolo." Viola warmly smiled. "Who wouldn't love you? You've grown into such a beautiful woman. Calling you piccolo now might be out of place, but you'll always be my little one."

Harper appreciated the compliment, but Viola had no idea how wrong she was. There were too many people in Harper's life who had claimed to love her, that simply didn't. Harper was beginning to flirt with the idea that maybe she was clearly a broken person that was impossible for people to truly love in a meaningful way.

Harper figured that Viola would figure that out for herself soon enough, but she wanted to enjoy her time with her old friend before Viola saw her for the lost cause she really was.

"What's going on down the hill?" Harper asked to change the subject when she noticed some work being done on a small cottage on the property.

"Your father's people have sent down plans to renovate the small building and bring it back to life as a guest house." Viola explained with pride. "Hundreds of years ago that's where the old caretaker used to board with his family. It has a lot of history."

"Speaking of caretakers..." Harper sang out, trying not to blush when the memory of how the current caretaker's back muscles flexed as he held up Emma or Greta and enthusiastically fucked her up against the stone gazebo as if his life depended on making the woman come. Despite her best efforts, Chris's impressive naked body kept invading Harper's mind even though cocky womanizing players weren't her type at all. "I met Chris last night."

"Yes, Mr. Evans. That poor boy." Viola sighed as they continued to walk the grounds and came up to the main gate.

After the impression that Chris had left Harper the night before "poor boy" would be the last words that she would use to describe him.

"How long has he worked here?" Harper enquired. "He doesn't sound like he's local."

"No, piccolo." Viola fondly smiled. "Chris is from Boston, just like you. He's been the caretaker here for about 5 or 6 months now. He does his best, bless his heart, but he mainly manages the local handymen. "

"Oh." Harper was confused, but at this point she felt as though she'd be prying if she asked anymore follow up questions. Besides, the longer they discussed the poor Mr. Evans, the more Harper was picturing him naked and wondering what it would feel like to run her hands through his long shaggy hair.

The two women walked arm in arm and Harper listened to the history lesson that Viola gave her during her tour and blocked out her x rated fantasies. She could tell that Viola did love the villa dearly but wished that more people lived there to truly appreciate it. But the more they talked, the more Harper could tell that Viola was hoping for more than just the pitter-patter of little puppy feet to grace it's walls one day.

Instead of promising to raise a family there, Harper changed the subject and asked about the many beautiful trees that they were passing on their walk. Apparently they had wandered into the orchard that was the home to a variety of different local lemon, peach, apple and pear trees that Harper couldn't wait to pick and bring back to the house with her.

"Villa Dalle Ceneri." Harper read aloud the old sign that hung at the end of the gate by the orchard, surely butchering the proper Italian pronunciation.

"Villa From Ashes." Viola translated for her as she picked up Coco and kissed the little dog's cheek.

"From Ashes? Why Ashes?" Harper asked as she wiped away some of the dirt and dust from the old wooden sign with her hand. "That sounds pretty ominous."

"Funny you should say that, piccolo," Viola laughed. "The people in the village still believe that this place is cursed."

"Cursed? That's silly."

"I agree." Viola nodded as she put Coco down and let him run around with Louis. "But people like to talk and tell their stories. But, to be fair, this villa has seen its fair share of tragedy. The original owners saw everything burn to the ground over 100 years ago. But it was rebuilt and renamed to honour the work that went into bringing it back to its former glory. But, to be honest, little one, from what I know of history, the family that owned this villa was made much stronger after they faced such a tragedy."

"Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes." Harper whispered to herself, wondering if the same could be true for the ruins of her own life one day. But the whole notion seemed impossible with her heart so utterly broken. "What was its original name?"

"I really don't know." Viola considered for a moment. "Lost to history, I guess. Nowadays it's just known as a cursed home for sad broken men."

"Like my father was?"

"Yes...and now for poor Mr. Evans, unfortunately." Viola sighed, obviously knowing more about Chris's situation than Harper did. "But hopefully now that you're here, that will all change."

"I'm sorry, but I've got my own problems..." Harper raised her hands up in protest. "I can't make anyone happy, and that's been made abundantly clear lately."

"I'm sorry, I just meant that your presence means that this villa isn't destined to be only a home for the broken hearted." Viola laughed at their misunderstanding. "Chris will mend himself like your father did... eventually."

Harper just didn't have the heart to correct Viola and inform the woman that she was the Villa Dalle Ceneri's newest broken hearted resident.

"Stupid magic villa." Harper muttered to the old wooden sign when Viola left her in the orchard to start lunch for her and Chris. "Apparently you're a place for sad broken women, too."

\------------------------------------

Despite her heavy sadness, the weather was lovely so Harper decided to explore the grounds a little bit longer and let the dogs run around in the grass before she headed back to the main house for lunch. There was something about the air in Italy that almost made her think that maybe her father had been on to something.

Harper thought that she had been doing a decent job of keeping an eye on her two smaller dogs as they chased each other, but soon they were nowhere to be found.

"Damn it." Harper muttered to herself. She'd only taken her eyes off them for a moment to pick a few lemons to bring back to the house. "Cokes! Lulu!"

Penny, as always, was right by Harper's side but when she started to sense trouble, the large mastiff began to sniff around and helped look for the lost pups with her owner.

Harper knew nothing about the wildlife in Italy. Those two tiny dogs didn't stand a chance against anything bigger than a chipmunk so she tried not to panic as she abandoned her lemons and started to search for them.

Penny must have known where to look, because she headed to the small guest cottage at the bottom of the hill that was under renovations and Harper followed behind her and hoped for the best.

As they approached the small building, Harper could see that the door to the cottage was wide open and started to calm down a little. With Coco and Louis being lazy lap dogs, Harper hoped that they had simply gone inside looking for some human company or a comfy couch to sleep on.

It was then, as Harper and Penny walked through the door, that she could hear a man's giddy laughter and the unmistakable sounds of her two dogs playing.

"There you guys are." Harper sighed in relief but smiled when she walked into the main living area and found Chris, the caretaker, on all fours wrestling and playing with the wee pups. It was an adorable sight with Chris being as large as he is, and the dogs being so small. After their meeting the night before, Harper hadn't expected to see such a sweet and relatable side to him.

But for as cute as he had been with the dogs, Chris seemed embarrassed to be caught in such an unmanly situation and quickly stood up and tried to redeem himself.

"Mr. Evans." Harper nodded and tried her damnedest not to picture him in all of his naked glory.

"I should put a bell on you." Chris quipped as he started clearing away some of the building supplies.

"Excuse me?" Harper snapped back, refusing to let Chris treat her like a child. "I didn't realize that there were places on the property that were off limits to me."

"That's not what I meant. You just always seem to sneak up on me, is all." Chris smiled and tried to lay on the same charm that had always worked so well for him with women, but it appeared that Harper wasn't having any of it. "At least I'm dressed this time."

"Viola is making lunch." Was all Harper could think to say. She knew that Chris was trying to flirt with her, but after the way that they had met, Harper was not at all receptive or ready for anything like that. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she wasn't sure if she even remembered how to flirt with someone in the first place even if she wanted to.

"Is that an invitation?" Chris asked with an overconfident swagger. "I thought you Dylan girls didn't fraternize with the help."

 _Dylan girls._ Harper loved her three half sisters ...well, she mostly loved them. They all had their good qualities, but Harper wasn't naive. She knew that they left a lot to be desired and rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with their entitled attitudes. But the only person that was allowed to insult them was her. Not some hot know it all outsider that she'd only known for a day.

"Now what in the hell do you know about the Dylan girls, Mr. Evans?" Harper challenged through her teeth with bunched up fists. Penny sensed the change in Harper's mood and stepped between her and Chris, ready to protect her owner in a heartbeat. "Who do you think you are? I get that you're not the best with names, buddy, but I'll have you know that my sisters-"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Chris protested with his hands up, realizing that he had unintentionally hit a nerve. He hadn't expected the little mousey woman he had met the night before to have so much of a backbone. Or for her huge ass dog to be so protective of her for that matter. "I get it, I'm protective of my siblings, too. I shouldn't have said anything. Let's start again, shall we. Call me, Chris, okay. Mr. Evans is my father. How are you liking your stay? Did you sleep well?"

Harper was puzzled by the fake robotic tone in his voice, it was almost as if he were reading a script and pretending to care about her comfort. Chris had a hard time being deferential to her or conveying even a humble sense of hospitality. Harper sensed that there was much more to Chris Evans than meets the eye. Apparently, he looked at her as an extension of his boss, and Harper could tell right away that Chris wasn't the kind of man who was used to being the low man on the totem pole. Not exactly a common handyman trait.

"This place is beautiful, Chris." Harper carefully started as she tried to make sense of him. Chris wasn't like any other person her father had hired to work on his properties before. Chris seemed far too capable and confident to be a low wage handyman. "But it was hot, I couldn't get the windows open."

"It's the latch, you have to wiggle it to the left first." Chris explained, giving the impression that he hated those windows as well.

"How do you know so much about the windows in the master suite?" Harper asked with a raised inquisitive eyebrow.

"Well, until you showed up, that was my room." Chris confessed, and was pleased that Penny had finally given him the benefit of the doubt and laid down at Harper's feet and relaxed.

"Ohhhh," Harper smirked when her hunch had been proven true. Chris definitely wasn't just an average handyman if he had been living in the master suite. "So that's why you're 'entertaining' outside and not too pleased that I showed up. Well, where are you staying now?"

"In the tiny shoebox that is the maid's room off the kitchen." Chris sighed, clearly not happy with his new accommodations. "Like the help."

"You can have your room back." Harper offered with a small smile, unsure as to why she was being so nice to him. "There's three other guest rooms upstairs that I can use. You were here first."

Now it was Chris's turn to be puzzled by Harper. In what world does one of the Dylan girls offer to give up the best room in the house?

"No, that's okay. Viola would have my ass." Chris insisted with a flashy smile, trying to hide how quickly Harper had been able to disarm him with her humble charm. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm not really used to having to answer to anyone." Chris apologized in a softer tone as he ran his hand through his long hair. He knew he was being a childish asshole but he really did hate having his space invaded. "I'm gunna skip lunch today. I have some more work to finish up here to keep the contractors on schedule before I head down to the marina."

"The marina? You work there, too?" Harper asked. After seeing the view of the water, the idea of spending a day out on the water seemed like a little slice of heaven.

"Yeah, sorta. I have a small sailboat. The tourists love it." Chris explained as he started to become uncomfortable with their pleasant small talk. Not only were Harper's big blue eyes distracting, but Chris had grown to enjoy the language barrier between him and most of the women that he had met in Italy. "Hmmm, Mrs. Chambers, is it? Tell Viola I said thanks for thinking of me, but I'll grab something to eat in town."

"Dylan." Harper corrected him in a small voice, suddenly unable to look him in the eye. "It's back to Dylan again. But you can call me, Harper."

"Ooooh, so that explains it." Chris smugly sang out when he caught on to the fact that she must be going through a divorce. Harper's confession caused something to snap inside him and Chris could barely contain his disdain. "Well, well, well, haven't you come to the right place." Chris smirked with a fake lighthearted tone and made Harper tense up and stand up straighter.

Chris wondered if he was doing a decent job of hiding his bitterness, but judging by the look on Harper's face, he was failing miserably. "Don't you worry about a thing. You'll forget all about him in no time. No time at all. It'll be like the guy never existed. That explains why Jonathan's been spending extra money on this place lately. His daughters mean everything to him."

"Don't you talk to me about my father, Mr Evans." Harper bitterly snapped. "You have no idea what you're fucking talking about."

"I...I..." This was the odd time that Chris had no idea what to say and his mouth hung open in shock. He was suddenly aware that he was a lot more fucked up than he had realized and had no reason to be such a shit to a woman that he had just met. A woman that was probably going through something terrible.

"Fuck off." Harper practically whispered as she sniffed and tried to remain dignified even though she felt as though she were in free fall. Chris downplaying the gravity of her divorce was one thing, but commenting on her relationship with her father was another matter entirely.

Jonathan Dylan's daughters might mean everything to him, just not his oldest one and Harper was right, Chris had no fucking idea of the landmine that he had just stepped on.

Tears started to well up in Harper's eyes but she'd be damned if she was going to let Captain fuckboy see her cry. So she scooped up Louis and Coco and practically ran back to the main house with Penny following closely behind.

Harper hated everything. She hated Zac, she hated Maddison. She hated that she'll never be a mother or have the life and family that she wanted. But worse, she hated that she wasn't the nearly person that she wanted to be. But most of all she hated this stupid beautiful villa and the cocky sexy man that came with it.

As she marched back to the house, Harper knew that she was being unreasonable and projecting all her pain on a stranger. But it was easier to hate a person that was standing right in front of her than the people that truly did her the most harm. 


	3. Rough Waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris goes sailing with a friend and Harper tries to get used to life in Italy.

Chris gave Harper enough time to make it to the main house before he left the guest cottage, jumped in his car and headed down to the water. A part of him really wanted to run after her and apologize for pushing her buttons and upsetting her, but in all honesty, he was in no condition to comfort anyone. Anything that he said would surely make things worse.

As he drove away from the villa, Chris squeezed and twisted the leather steering wheel and wondered if he would ever start to feel like himself again. The man he was six months ago never would have practically laughed in a woman's face because she was going through a divorce. What the fuck was wrong with him?

He'd been in Italy for almost half a year and Chris was still no closer to putting the past behind him. In fact, if he was being honest with himself, he felt further away from himself than ever. Damn Jonathan and his crazy ideas about magic villa's and his beautiful daughter popping up out of nowhere. Chris was never going to be able to get his old life back at this rate...that's if he actually wanted his old life back.

Chris was hoping that he could just sail his boat for an hour or two and forget what a monumental ass he had been to Harper back at the guest house. But it didn't matter how far he sailed out into the bay, Chris couldn't stop seeing Harper's big blue eyes filled up with tears in his mind's eye. It didn't help that he kept comparing every shade of blue he saw to the unique colour of her eyes. She really didn't deserve to be hurt by a fucked up asshole like him.

Meeting Jonathan's daughter had reinforced all of the reasons why he couldn't go back to Boston. He was a loose cannon and no good to anyone yet. He'd been on the water for almost an hour before the water started to get a little too choppy for his liking, so Chris checked his watch and considered heading back to maybe grab a bite to eat or possibly find someone new to spend the night with at the local bar.

"Penny for your thoughts?" A familiar chipper voice sung out to him from the cabin beneath him. 

_"Jesus!"_ Chris yelled out and nearly fell into the water. "Sebastian! I could have fucking decked you, you know that! Have you been on boat the whole fucking time!"

Sebastian laughed one of those strong belly laughs where practically no sound came out and the longer he laughed at him the more Chris considered tossing his old friend overboard for scaring the hell out of him.

"You know you could have helped me out you know." Chris scolded him, referring to sailing the boat. The two of them usually worked as a team and sailed together. Chris could do it by himself, but it was a pain in the ass.

"I was in the cabin. I would have said hi, but you were in your own world, my friend." Sebastian grinned as he took a seat next to him and continued to be amused by the whole situation. "What's going on that has you inside your head so badly? How did the German deal go?"

"We're still in negotiations." Chris sighed as he checked the sail and tried to remember his old sailing lessons. "But they'll cave, they need the capital."

"So if it isn't the international markets that have you in such a funk, what's going on? Thinking about heading home soon?" Seb added with a mixture of hope and worry in his voice.

"You wanna head back stateside?" Chris tried to ask him in a lighthearted way, but the length of their stay in Italy was a touchy subject and they both knew it.

"No no no." Seb protested as he shook his head and took in the beautiful scenery. "I'm good. You know that. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with you."

"So you can report back to Jonathan?" Chris wickedly smirked. "Well, you can tell the old man that nothing much has changed...but he's right, Italy sure is beautiful."

Chris was well aware that one of Seb's jobs during their stay in Italy, was to keep an eye on him and report back to their boss. But in all honesty, Chris didn't mind and respected the fact that Jonathan wanted to be kept in the loop from an objective source. Chris was no fool, he would do the very same thing if he were in either Seb or Jonathan's shoes.

Even though Sebastian worked directly for Chris, Jonathan Dylan was still technically Seb's boss, too. But Chris appreciated that Seb had always been straight with him and Chris had never seen any of their communications as a breach of loyalty. They were all in a mess of Chris's doing so he had no real right to complain.

"So did you meet the mystery daughter?" Seb chuckled. "What's she like?"

"Up tight." Chris quickly answered with a huff. "Not a hair out of place or a button undone. It's like my old school principal just moved in."

"Really? How many bags did she bring?" Seb grinned, expecting to hear his boss complain about having to do some manual labour and pretend to be a servant for the first time in his life.

"Not as many as I was expecting, actually. But you'll never believe the big ass dog she brought with her, though. It's huge, like it's head is probably bigger than mine." Chris exclaimed with a big toothy smile. Dogs had always been a subject that made Chris feel like a little kid and Seb liked seeing his old friend happy, if only for a moment. "She's got two little designer fluffy ones, too, they're pretty cute. Carly's kids would love 'em. Kinda makes me miss Dodger, he was always great with little dogs."

"Not like a Dylan girl to travel so light." Seb tried to change the subject when Chris brought up his family and his old dog. After thinking about his life in Boston Seb could sense Chris's familiar sadness to start taking over his friend again.

"Maybe she's not staying long, who knows." Chris shrugged. "After having to endure Maddison and Tiffany, Harper's not exactly what I expected. But, trust me, she's a whole different brand of crazy, though, so heads up."

"Really?"

"Maybe...I dunno much about anything anymore; you know that. I don't think that she buys that I'm the caretaker. But she's not asking too many questions which is nice. I could never get her sisters to shut the hell up when they found out about my promotion awhile back."

"Did I ever tell you about the time I first started working for Jonathan and I pulled the short straw and had to help Maddison move into her sorority?" Seb groaned and laughed at the same time.

"Which one?"

"Which dorm? I dunno. The third one I think." Seb considered as he fixed the knot that Chris had screwed up. Maddison had tried her hand at getting a higher education so many times, it was hard to keep track. "She threw a fit over the closet space and I'm pretty sure that one of her friends grabbed my ass."

"Well, that's why I pay you the big bucks." Chris teased. "I always hated putting up with any of the messy family shit."

"So this one is older than Maddison. Harper, right?" Seb clarified, realizing that this was the first time that Chris, Jonathan's golden boy, had had to deal with any of petty family duties that their boss had usually doled out to his lesser staff to deal with. "I didn't even know she existed. Did you?"

"First wife." Chris simply stated as if that were an acceptable answer as to why no one really knew that much about Harper before. "I think her mother's last name was Harper something. Jonathan never says much about her. But we're even because she doesn't seem to know that much about me...and well, you know." Chris tried to explain while Seb nodded in agreement to save him from elaborating. "She's got her own problems, though; going through a divorce."

"Oh, I see." Seb sympathetically smiled as he sighed and shook his head in amusement. "Jonathan and his magic villa saves the day again."

"Speaking of first wives." Chris chuckled when he could see concern for him in his old friend's eyes and wanted to distract him and deflect him. "How's Isabella doing?"

"I swear, I think I found the only vegan woman in all of Italy." Seb laughed. "I love her, but man, I'm hungry all the damn time!"

The two of them worked together to turn the boat around and headed back into the marina with the promise of finding Seb a real meal. One of the things that Chris loved about Sebastian was that he always seemed to know just when to back off and give him his space. It was a good skill to have during this particular chapter of his life.

Chris was thankful that his old friend had put his life on hold and followed him to Italy when his own life completely imploded. Whether they were in Boston or Italy, Seb always evened Chris out and helped to keep his head above water.

A talent which was useful during the last six months when Chris decided to follow a slightly more self destructive path than Seb would have liked him to. But in his defence, Chris's vices of choice had been sleeping through their sleepy Italian village and throwing away his razor. Seb had always joked with Isabella and Viola that Chris could have chosen far worse ways to handle his pain.

In retrospect, Chris appreciated their differences. Seb refused to follow him down the rabbit hole of endless women and rounds of beer at the local bar. Instead, Seb had met Isabella a week after they had flown in, and the two of them had been inseparable ever since. Seb lived in town to be closer to her, and he and Chris would take tourists out sailing by day, and meet up every now and again for a drink.

Seb never regretted following Chris to Italy. After everything that had happened to his boss, Seb knew that Chris needed someone to look out for him. Chris continued to work on and off from the villa and Seb was almost jealous at Chris's ability to still make obscene amounts of money for Dylan Industries without even really trying.

Jonathan was right to give Chris a lengthy sabbatical instead of giving up on him and firing him. But in all honesty, Seb would have probably stood by his old friend regardless if he had lost his job or not. Seb believed that Chris had to get over his loss in his own way and had promised himself that he would never judge the choices that he made to get there.

At times, it annoyed Chris that Seb was so well adjusted and happy with their current living situation. It was almost as if nothing could phase the guy, whereas Chris had been trying to gain his footing for months now.

But as happy as Seb was in Italy with Isabella, Chris could tell that Seb was waiting for him to pull the plug and send him home. A cynical bitter part of Chris wondered if that would be an end to their relationship and break their perfect facade. But in the end, Chris didn't have the heart to do it to them. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Sebastian and Isabella was good to him. And if there was anything that Chris knew for sure; a good woman was nearly impossible to find.

"So Harper's settling in, okay?" Seb asked as he looked out onto the water and wondered if there was anything more beautiful than the Italian coast. "Jonathan will probably want to know. Unless, you wanna fill him in instead."

"I'm not getting in the middle of them." Chris sighed, remembering the disastrous conversation that he had had with Harper earlier.

"Whaddya mean?" Seb asked, sensing trouble.

"I dunno, I think that there's more going on there than meets the eye." Chris sighed. "Just tell him that for the time being, the princess is fine."

But Chris knew that was a lie. No one living at Villa Dalle Ceneri was fine.

\--------------------------

After Harper had drowned her sorrows in a second helping of delicious homemade pasta that Viola had made for lunch, she grabbed her book and tried to read outside while the dogs played around her big comfy lounge chair.

The argument that she had had with Chris was still ringing in her ears and she needed to try to decompress. Thanks to her hormone shots and her husband and sister's betrayal, Harper had been feeling every single emotion maxed out by eleven all at once for days now and she knew that it wasn't healthy. She was bound to crack and spin out of control at some point.

Poor Chris had no idea what kind of nerve he had hit that afternoon when he had brought up her father. She considered finding Chris and apologizing for her snapping at him, but decided against it. Harper had done too much caving in recently and stubbornly refused to apologize first.

The end of her marriage, and her sister's cruelty, had hurt Harper worse than anything she could remember feeling before. Maybe even worse then when her mother had abandoned her when she was a child. Harper had always prided herself in staying in control, but with the events of the past week, Harper wasn't sure if she could regain control of anything.

The more depressed she felt, the more she considered that maybe she had never actually been in control of anything for all these years. What if she had always been a mess and had just mastered the art of faking it? Maybe some time by herself in this magic villa could help her figure it all out.

Unfortunately, self care had never really been one of Harper's strong suits. But here she was in Italy, on the verge of a nervous breakdown surrounded by beauty and luxury without a single responsibility in sight. What better time than now to start looking after her mental health?

Maybe it was the jet lag or all the carbs that she had loaded up on, but Harper ended up falling into a heavy dreamless sleep after only a few chapters of her book and only woke when the sun had gone down and she started to get cold.

'Shit." Harper cursed when she checked her watch and realized that she had napped half the evening away and had no idea where Louis and Coco were for the second time that day. "Cokes! Lulu!" Harper called out to them.

Penny grumbled in her sleep by her feet and Coco came as soon as she was called. Louis, on the other hand, was being a little mischievous shit and only stuck his head out of one of the flower gardens after Harper called out for him a second time, sounding panicked and scared.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Harper groaned when she caught a glimpse of her white maltese looking anything but white. The little dog must have spent a great deal of time exploring the various gardens in the backyard while she had been napping and her little guy was completely filthy. "You just let him run a muck like that, Cokes?" Harper teased her perfectly clean mini labradoodle. "Well jokes on you. You're getting a bath, too."

\---------

About 30 minutes later, Harper was running back into the kitchen with a towel for her two little freshly bathed pups, when she heard a blood curdling scream coming from the kitchen area that startled the hell out of her.

Harper had no idea what was going on or who was in the house, so she dropped the towel and quickly grabbed the closest thing to her that she could use as a weapon; which turned out to be a blue plastic chuckit stick that she brought with her to play fetch the dogs.

Harper held the dog toy with both hands like a baseball bat and froze in place in the hallway just outside the kitchen as all the blood drained from her face. Penny, sensing her owner's fear, calmly and quietly made her way over to her and instinctively sat in front of her to protect her from harm as the screaming continued in the kitchen and then out into the backyard.

 _What the fuck have I gotten myself into,_ Harper chasized herself in her head while her adrenaline went into overdrive. _Magic healing villa my ass!_ She wasn't even sure if she called 911 it would work in Italy. She'd be damned if she was going to get killed in the middle of nowhere before she had an opportunity to put her life back together. _This is bullshit!_

"It's okay, little guy." Harper could hear Chris's deep voice coming from the kitchen as the screaming got further and further away from the house. Harper gulped and her heart started to beat properly again knowing that there was someone else in the house with her. Even though Chris was an ass, Harper felt safe with him and didn't think that he meant her any physical harm...emotional harm on the other hand, well that's a different story. "Let's get you dried off."

"Is it safe?" Harper called out as she peeked her head into the kitchen, still armed with her plastic dog toy, ready to defend her, Chris, and the dogs. The screaming woman was long gone and the only one in the kitchen was a shirtless Chris wearing only a pair of grey boxer briefs, standing over the sink with her dripping wet maltese in his hands.

"You can stand down, Dylan." Chris scoffed when he saw her standing in the doorway gripping the useless plastic dog toy. "What were you gunna do? Toss a ball and hope that the intruder ran and fetched it for you?"

"What the fuck is going on?" Harper demanded as she looked around the kitchen with big scared eyes and tried to ignore Chris's teasing and the fact that he had very little clothing on, yet again.

"What's going on, is that your dogs continue to cock block me every chance they get. Didn't cha, Lou?" Chris teased the tiny dog which, now that he was wet, looked even smaller if that was even possible. Almost like a little white rat with a pink tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth.

"He was digging up the flower beds, and really needed a bath." Harper quickly explained and tried not to stare at Chris's impressive physique. How was a man like him even possible? The way Chris stood against the counter defined his muscles and Harper tried to remember what those sexy hip muscle things were called...because Chris had those in spades.

"I was just grabbing them a towel." Harper explained as she tried to think clearly. Adonis muscles! That's what those sexy lines were called. "Did he manage to climb out of the sink and off the damn table?" Harper gasped, but then noticed the stool beside the counter and figured out for herself how Louis must have accomplished his little jailbreak. Again, Coco let her brother get into trouble while she obediently waited for her in the sink.

"Yup, he sure did. And then right into my bed." Chris dropped his serious annoyed facade and let out a hearty laugh as he recalled the look on his date's face when Louis popped his little head up and effectively ruined the hot chemistry he was trying to create with his newest "friend."

"Oh no." Harper groaned as she tried not to laugh.

"She was sure that little guy was some kind of rodent and ran for the hills. I got her name this time, though." Chris chuckled. "For as much good as it did me."

"Lulu!" Harper halfheartedly scolded her naughty pup with laughter in her voice. "He's never done that before, but he's a bit of a knucklehead." Noah giggled. "Sorry, I didn't even know that you were home."

"I saw you sleeping outside when I got back from town." Chris shrugged as he swallowed hard. Implying that he wasn't sure if it was his place to wake her up or not. Especially after their last interaction, Chris wasn't sure if Harper wanted him anywhere near her after he acted like such an asshole.

"A combination of jetlag and Viola's pasta." Harper sang out as she traded her weapon of choice for the abandoned towel and folded her two very wet dogs into it. "They really like you, by the way." Referring to Louis and Coco who Chris couldn't stop playing with while they were in her arms.

Harper wasn't sure why she was complimenting the man that had insulted her only a few hours ago in the guest cottage, but there was something about Chris Evans playing with dogs in his underwear that made it impossible for Harper to stay mad at him.

"I had a dog back home; Dodger." Chris wistfully confessed as he scratched Coco behind her ears the way she liked. Chris had nothing but warmth dripped from his voice when he said his dog's name and Harper had to admit that she liked that side of him.

"You didn't bring him with you?" Harper casually asked as she tried to dry both dogs while Chris got them all excited and made them squirm in her arms. "The paperwork was surprisingly easy to get them into the country, I wouldn't have come otherwise."

"Naw, I kinda left in a hurry. He's staying with my -, ummm." Chris quickly cleared his throat and stopped playing with the dogs. He had almost let something important slip and quickly started to wall himself off emotionally to make up for it. What was it about Harper Dylan that could disarm him so quickly, he had just met the damn woman. "He's staying with family."

"Are you hungry?" Harper asked before he ran off to his room. "I haven't had dinner yet. But Viola left me some fresh bread and pasta, it'll probably taste better if it's eaten tonight. I'll share some with you. It's the least I can do since my dogs keep making your dates runoff screaming for the hills."

"I kinda already ate it..." Chris confessed with a pain expression but puffed out a loud laugh when Harper raised a questioning eyebrow at him and seemed genuinely shocked that he had eaten all of her food. "It's me that Vi usually leaves food for, I'm not really used to living with someone."

Harper figured that she had already yelled at the man enough for one day, so she decided to let it slide. But man, did she ever love Viola's homemade focaccia bread. But more than that, Harper appreciated that there was no one around to stop her from eating carbs in the evening and make snarky comments about her figure.

Zac had always had something to say about Harper either being too fat or too thin and had always implied (without evidence) that it was her weight that had kept her from getting pregnant. But now that she was in Italy and surrounded by delicious food, Harper planned on eating whatever she liked. If she couldn't be loved or have a baby, at the very least, Harper was going to eat all the fresh italian bread that her heart desired.

If only she knew how to make herself another loaf of bread, Harper would have rolled up her sleeves and baked one in a heartbeat. It was a shame that she was standing in a beautifully renovated chef's dream kitchen; but didn't really know how to use all of the fancy equipment that surrounded her.

"That's okay." Harper lied with a heavy sigh. "I'll think of something."

That night Harper went to bed with a bruised and broken heart and an empty tummy. Penny wasn't sure if she was allowed on the bed with her for a second night in a row, but when Harper started to sniffle and softly cry, Penny slowly and tentatively crawled up on the bed beside her. Instead of scolding her, Harper immediately wrapped her arms around her large dog and sobbed into her fur.

She had been in Italy for a full day and felt no closer to becoming the person that she wanted to be. Harper knew that she couldn't just sit on her butt everyday and think about Zac and Maddison and wonder if anyone even cared that she was completely broken. She needed something to do with her time here. Something that might distract her and bring a little bit of joy to her life. Maybe that was the key to her getting over what had happened.

Harper knew nothing of Chris's life before he came to Italy, but in the little time that she had known him she had inferred that his plan was to fuck his way through the greater Tuscany area in an attempt to get over whatever had brought him to the villa and made him, what Viola had referred to as, "poor Mr. Evans."

Harper considered maybe taking a page out of Chris's book. But sleeping around had never been her style. Not only did she hate men at the moment, but she felt like unlovable damaged goods. Any man she'd ever deem worth of fucking her problems away with would probably never give her the time of day in the state that she was currently in.

Harper would figure something out. But for the time being, now that she was alone in her big luxurious master suite, all she needed to do was cry. She just hoped that Chris didn't hear her.


	4. Peace Offering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harper finds new ways to spend her time, one of them being getting to know Chris a little better.

Harper had been in Italy for a whole week before she decided to take a swim. In all honesty, the pool had been calling her name since she got there, but when Viola implied that her father had put it in just for her, Harper avoided it out of spite.

Harper wasn't exactly sure why she had changed her mind all of a sudden. Maybe she hoped that taking a dip might take her mind off of her loneliness. Or maybe she had finally gotten over her last hormone shot and her jet lag and could finally stop finding excuses to act like a stubborn child. Either way, the water felt amazing and it was nice to swim again and feel weightless in the water. It was as if she were being reacquainted with an old friend.

She might never have gone swimming at all if Viola hadn't discovered that Harper hadn't packed a swimsuit with her. Because the day after she found out, Viola had kindly gone out and purchased one for her without being asked and left the simple black two piece suit on Harper's bed. Harper hadn't expected such a thoughtful gesture, nor had she expected the 70 year old woman to pick out such a tiny sexy bikini for her to wear.

But lap after lap, the longer Harper swam, the clearer her mind became. She started to feel free for the first time in a very long time and she couldn't seem to pry herself away from the water. As it turned out, when Harper swam, there was no Zac or Maddison or beautiful nameless blonde women wearing her bathrobe haunting her mind. There were no IVF treatments or babies that would never be. No father that refused to love her. Only freedom and the weightlessness of the water.

Harper didn't have to answer to anyone and could put her life on pause, if only for a moment, and she didn't want that feeling to end. She began to crave it and, before she knew it, Harper had practically pushed her body to the brink of exhaustion.

"Hey! Harp-" a male voice called out to her and startled her so badly that she choked on the pool water. "Harper! Hey, slow down!"

"Shit!" Harper coughed as she looked up and saw Chris standing above her wearing jeans and an old t-shirt. Chris looked impatient and annoyed with her and, as usual, Harper couldn't help but scowl back at him and match his ire.

But for as bothered as she was by his sudden presence, it dawned on Harper that she had no idea how long he'd been trying to get her attention. Harper quickly looked around and tried to gain her bearings as she stopped swimming. She had zoned out and had been so deep in her own world that she could have been swimming like that for hours. Luckily, all three of her dogs were safe and curled up in one of the lounge chairs, fast asleep and out of the sun, patiently waiting for her to finish and play with them. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Nice form, by the way. Have you been in the pool all morning?" Chris asked as he leaned down to pat Penny's large head.

"Is it not still morning?"

"It's almost 3." Chris smirked after he checked his watch. It was refreshing for Chris to see Harper so frazzled and less of a control freak. He'd been annoyed with her for one reason or another since she'd gotten there. Not just for snapping at him and taking his old room, but for "requesting" that he start smoking outside. It wasn't that he was a heavy smoker in the first place, but Chris hated being reminded of the fact that this villa was not actually his home and that he had no real authority to call the shots. He had cursed the princess in his head her every single time he lit one up. "Who knew you were half fish." Chris teased as he petted the dogs and Harper slowly made her way through the water to the edge of the pool.

Now that Chris had snapped her out of her zone, Harper finally noticed how weak her body was and she barely managed to drag herself out of the pool. Chris noticed her struggling and jumped up and tried to help her when she almost fell back in. But Harper refused his help and very ungracefully crawled out of the pool and sprawled out on the deck, quite literally, like a fish out of water or a beached whale.

That overwhelming sense of freedom and clarity that swimming again had given her, was quickly being replaced with worn out fatigue that was quickly spreading throughout her overused muscles. She was so out of shape it was embarrassing.

Chris tried not to stare as Harper breathed heavily on her back, but his eyes kept betraying him. For as crazy and neurotic as Harper Dylan had been since she'd moved in, she was an undeniable beauty. Especially in a two piece bathing suit that left very little to the imagination. But she was nuts, and more importantly, his boss's daughter so she was off limits to Chris and nothing but trouble. But Chris was only human, and found himself committing the shape of Harper's body to memory.

Chris sighed to himself and gave her a moment to recover from her workout. But he couldn't help but focus on the beads of water as they danced down between her full breasts and traveled down her stomach. He was practically memorized by her curves and how her full lips formed into a perfectly shaped pout as she tried to steady her breathing. He couldn't help but wonder what her lips would taste like and if he could make her pant like that under very different circumstances.

"What is it?" Harper asked with her eyes still closed unaware of Chris's lingering hungry gaze. Her voice was husky and rougher than usual. Making her appear even sexier for a moment without even trying.

"Viola's back from the market with the groceries you wanted." Chris informed her as he cleared his throat and tried to think straight again. "She sent me to fetch you."

Ever since Harper had blown up at Chris in the guest cottage and Louis had chased away his date, the two of them had done a pretty good job of avoiding each other. Their paths would cross when she would take the dogs on long walks and Chris went on his daily jog. But for the most part they tolerated each other's presence with a polite nod.

Chris took his meals elsewhere and did his best to stay out of Harper's way for the most part. He'd even managed to sneak a couple of women into his room off the kitchen once he was sure Harper was asleep. Even though Harper had only asked him to keep his future "guests" to his room and not to stop entertaining entirely, it was thrilling to sneak around like a teenager again and get one over on her.

Harper had appreciated Chris's efforts to keep to himself. Even though Chris wasn't as covert as he thought he'd been and she was well aware that he was still bringing strange women into the house at night. Nothing gets passed Penny and Harper had even met a few of them in the morning when they had to do their inevitable walk of shame.

But Harper didn't judge Chris's lifestyle. Sure, Chris was a presumptuous, overconfident playboy, but he was also a charming, virile, gorgeous man. At least someone at Villa Dalle Ceneri was getting lucky.

Harper never held any ill will towards any of the women that Chris had brought home. Maybe Harper was just lonely because she had even shared her muffins with some of his hookups and gave them a coffee for the road to prove that there were no hard feelings.

But the longer that her and Chris avoided each other, the more Harper dwelled on their last conversation about her father and regretted biting his head off. She had been an emotional mess when she had first showed up at the villa and they had to live together for the time being. But for as much as they tried to be civil with each other, their first conversation had been hanging over their heads for days now and it was time for them to clear the air, and they both knew it.

"Thanks." Harper polietly smiled as Chris helped her off the ground and handed her a towel. Chris was being weirder than usual and she could have sworn that he was trying not to look directly at her. Harper found his nervousness puzzling until she remembered that she was wearing a tiny bikini that barely covered her boobs and quickly wrapped the large towel around herself. Harper was embarrassed for a moment, until she remembered how they had first met and figured that they were sorta even now.

"Look, about before, in the guest cottage. I shouldn't have said all that stuff the day after you got here... I think we got off on the wrong foot." Chris found himself apologizing first. Now that Chris was impressed with how Harper looked in a bikini, he had started thinking with another part of his anatomy but quickly regretted letting his walls down even for a moment. For as hot as Harper might be when she wasn't dressed like a middle-aged conservative housewife, Chris knew that he should keep this woman at arm's length, at least until he got his own fucked up life sorted out.

"I was a terrible mess." Harper readily admitted. "But...I mean, you were pretty terrible, too." She quickly pointed out, stubbornly refusing to accept all of the blame. "But we have to live together, so maybe we should probably try and start fresh. But if it makes you feel any better, from what I gather about this place, it doesn't exactly attract the most stable people in the world."

"You're probably right about that." Chris laughed in a self deprecating way that Harper found far more charming than the cocky attitude he shown her the last few times they had interacted.

Chris was relieved that she didn't hate him enough to kick him out of her father's villa. After spending close to six months here, Chris wasn't sure where he would even go. Returning to Boston just wasn't an option, not yet anyway.

The two of them walked into the kitchen through the patio doors and Chris rushed to Viola's side and took the bags of groceries out of her hands when he saw her struggling with them.

"Hey hey hey." Chris softly scolded the older lady as he put the bags on the center island in the kitchen. "I told you that I would bring all of those in. Don't hurt yourself, Vi. What are you making? There's enough food here to feed an army."

"Harper here has expressed a desire to cook some proper Italian dishes." Viola announced as she gave Harper a smile and a kiss on the cheek. "I have no doubt that you'll be a quick learner, my dearest. The handymen are in for a real treat."

"Were you a chef or something in Boston?" Chris casually asked with a layer of amusement in his voice. Chris didn't think that she had what it took to cook something edible, and Harper was so annoyed that she nearly smacked him.

"I'm a graphic designer. But how hard can it be?" Harper snapped at him as Viola laughed at how they were bickering like brother and sister. Fitting since Viola saw them both as her children. "I'd love to go to the markets with you next time, Viola, and get the lay of the land." Harper beamed as she ignored Chris and surveyed all the groceries that Viola had brought home.

"You're in for a treat." Chris scoffed as he scanned all the food and peeked inside some of the bags. "They all think the people who live here are living under some dark curse."

"A fact that you clearly use to your advantage." Harper mumbled under her breath, much to Chris's amusement. The dark sad guy routine had served him well during his time here and he was impressed that Harper had picked up on his strategy. There was a good sense of humour somewhere underneath all of that craziness, Chris mused to himself with a knowing smirk.

"But let them talk." Harper insisted to Viola with a big bright smile. "You can teach me how to pick out the right meats and cheeses and show me what to avoid. I'm all in. I have no idea how long I'm going to be here, but I've decided that I'm not leaving until I'm a proper Italian chef."

"I'd love that, piccolo." Viola exclaimed. "That reminds me. The wine cellar is due to be stocked later this week. Your father's treat. He also had a credit card sent this morning for you to cover your expenses in case you forgot to pack anything else."

Viola smiled and Harper tried to smile back at her, but accepting more of her father's gifts was hard on her soul. But in for a penny, in for a pound, right? Maybe with a little luck she could develop a small drinking problem instead of swimming lap after lap until she drowns. Healthy self care had never been one of Harper's strong suits anyway.

"I see that you've been in the pool. I do hope the suit fits well."

"Yes, but it's a little smaller than what I'm used to." Harper blushed as she tightened the towel around herself. When had she become such an uptight prude? Harper chastised herself. She used to live in tiny bathing suits and never thought anything of it. But now, for some reason, the woman that used to feel confident in her body felt like a different person. "But thank you very much, Viola." Harper sweetly smiled. "The pool was lovely. It was really thoughtful of you."

"You're so beautiful, little one." Viola praised as she cupped Harper's cheek and gazed lovingly into her blue eyes.

Chris watched them together out of the corner of his eye and witnessing their relationship warmed his heart. Viola and Harper loved each other deeply and it showed. They're mutual affection for each other filled the whole kitchen and made Chris miss his own mother back in Boston.

Chris was starting to suspect that Harper wasn't as bad as he thought, but he was stubborn and vowed not to let his walls down around her again. It was far too easy to talk to her, and he was afraid that he'd let something slip one day that he'd end up regretting. But, as much as he was dreading it, Chris knew it was only a matter of time before Harper found out the truth about him and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Enjoy yourself a little bit. It's nice to see you out of your room. I'm so glad that you're finally over your jet lag. Maybe you could go into town and meet a nice Italian man, no?"

Harper playfully rolled her eyes and giggled to downplay Viola's attempt at match making but she could feel Chris's eyes on her while he was unpacking the groceries. Harper really hoped that Chris didn't pity her. Viola still had no idea that she was going through a divorce and was actually in her room depressed and crying her eyes out; not sleeping off her jet lag like she had assumed.

Unfortunately, the look on Chris's face implied that he had put two and two together for himself but Harper was thankful that he had enough class not to say anything. If he had heard her crying at night, he had tactfully kept it to himself.

By day, Harper had been trying to put on a brave face, but by night Harper let herself feel all of the heartbreak that she still carried with her. So needless to say Penny had a permanent spot on her bed every night. Maybe learning to cook could be a way to turn all of that around and give her something positive to focus on.

"So what are you going to teach me to make first, Viola." Harper announced as she changed the subject. "I want to learn everything!"

\------------------------

Later that evening, after her first cooking lesson (and against her better judgement) Harper decided to join Chris outside by the pool.

Harper had walked by the window and there was something about him that caught her eye. He was just sitting at the patio table, smoking a cigarette with Penny sleeping by his feet. There was a thoughtful sadness about him that Harper seemed to be drawn to... maybe she found it familiar in an unfortunate way. 

Harper wondered why Chris was staying in for the night and not going into town like he usually did. Chris still wasn't her favourite person, but the sun was starting to set and it was far too nice of an evening to waste it crying upstairs in her big fancy bedroom. Maybe cheering him up, might cheer her up. Who knows?

Mending things with her father's caretaker was better than boredom, so Harper brought out two bottles of beer in the hopes that she could get to know him a little better. Because just sharply nodding to him everyday when she was walking the property with the dogs was getting a little weird considering that they practically lived together.

"Sorry, am I disturbing you?" Harper softly apologized when Chris looked over his shoulder when he heard the sliding glass patio doors open behind him.

"Not at all." Chris huffed as he put out his cigarette and waved the second hand smoke away.

"Peace offering?" Harper shrugged as she motioned to the two beers in her hand. "Oh, you don't have to stop-'' Harper tried in vain to keep him from putting out his cigarette, but it was too late. Chris knew how much she hated the second hand smoke and had already put it out and had pushed out the chair next to him for her to sit on. "Thanks."

"I gotta quit anyway, my ma would kill me if she knew how much I've been smoking since I got here."

"Was that who you were talking to?" Harper asked as she handed him his beer. She had noticed Chris having a very animated conversation on his cell phone a few minutes before she worked up the courage to come outside and attempt to be social.

"Yeah, she likes to check in." Chris sighed with a trace of annoyance in his voice. "She's upset that I'm not coming home for my birthday."

"Does your family check in a lot?"

"Yeah, we're all pretty close."

"Must be nice." Harper faked a smile to try and hide how much it upset her that she hadn't heard from anyone since her whole life had fallen apart. Granted her phone was still hidden away in her nightstand, but her father knew how to connect her, yet had chosen not to. "Does your family live in Boston, too?"

"Born and bred." Chris slyly smiled as they toasted to Boston and clinked the necks of their beer bottles together.

Penny woke from her slumber when she heard her owner's voice and very lazily got up from Chris's feet and placed her large boxy head in Harper's lap.

"Awww, Penny pie." Harper cooed as she petted her best friend's head and scratched her behind the ears. "You havin' another nap, lazy girl?"

"What's the deal with her anyway?" Chris asked with a big friendly smile on his face. Seeing Harper with her dogs always seemed to lower his guard. The tense conversation that he had been having with his mother was quickly being forgotten thanks to Harper's presence.

"Whadda mean?"

"I mean, Cokes and Lulu, I get." Chris explained as he affectionately used the dogs nicknames. "I know a lot of women with smaller dogs. But Penny here looked like a lion or something coming out of the woods when I first saw her."

Harper giggled at the comparison and couldn't help but remember the naked erotic state that Chris had been in when they'd first met.

Chris could see the blush burning on her cheeks as he took a sip of his beer, delighted that he could mess with her and read her mind. They were both thinking the same thing as they smirked at giggled at each other.

"Well, I always wanted a dog," Harper started to explain, refusing to flirt with him any further. "But it never really worked out until about a year ago. I was volunteering at a shelter and I just couldn't leave her behind when I had to quit."

"Why did you _'have'_ to quit?" Chris innocently asked while he played with his beer bottle. He sensed some regret in her voice that seemed a little puzzling. 

"My ex thought that I needed to focus on...on other things."

 _"'Other things.'"_ Chris mocked. "That's pretty vague."

"We were trying to have a baby." Harper blurted out in a voice that didn't sound like hers. "Two years of trying and three rounds of IVF. He wanted me to focus on that."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay. It was kinda intense with the hormone treatments and stuff. So much so, that I actually considered going the adoption route. I just wanted a family, you know. I wasn't hung up on biology." After everything that had happened, it felt like she was speaking about another person; not confessing her deepest intimate desires.

"But?" Chris asked as he hung on her every word. When they weren't bickering with each other, Chris had to admit that he found Jonathan's daughter fascinating and this was the first conversation that they had had about something real. "I sense a _'but'_ coming."

 _"Buuuut_ Zac hated the idea of adoption. He wouldn't even entertain the idea. He thought that I just wasn't concentrating hard enough on getting pregnant."

 _"Concentrating?"_ Chris repeated as he sat up a little straighter and found himself surprisingly furious with a man that he had never met. The dark look that crossed Harper's face made Chris believe that her fertility issues are what caused her breakup and he could sense that she blamed herself. "Jesus. I'm not a doctor, but I don't think that it works that way."

"Try explaining that to him...Well, needless to say, the added pressure didn't help." Harper sarcastically stated as she motioned to her bottle and took a sip of her beer, implying that she could drink because she wasn't pregnant.

"That's crazy."

"But I couldn't just leave Penny there." Harper insisted as she tried to steer the conversation back to a happier subject. "The shelter was great, and I knew that they would look after her, but Penny and I just kinda bonded. Before I knew it, I was filling out adoption papers on my last day and the rest is history. She's been by my side ever since."

"And what about these two?" Chris asked as Coco and Louis came trotting out of the house and jumped up onto their respective laps.

"That's a whole other can of worms!" Harper laughed as she tried to get Louis to stop licking her chin. "You won't believe how many people I pissed off when I stole them!"

"You stole them!" Chris laughed as he played with Coco. "Good call, huh Cokes. I'd probably steal you, too."

"My sister Tiffany..." Harper groaned as if using Tiffany's name was enough explanation. "By the time I put my foot down, they were in pretty rough shape. Cokes was so thin that her collar kept falling off, and Lulu, believe it or not, was a wicked little biter, weren't cha little man?"

"You're kidding." Chris scoffed, having a hard time believing that the dogs that he had grown so fond of had been in such dire straits.

"Yeah, but I was surprised at how quickly they've turned around."

"They just needed a better owner." Chris stated with confidence as he took a sip of his beer without taking his eyes away from Harper's. Chris couldn't help but respect the hell outta her for having the balls to steal them and giving them a better life.

"Tiffany didn't talk to me for a month and Zac slept in the guest room for a week."

"I'm guessing prince charming isn't a dog guy?"

"Nope, but I am." Harper giggled. "Well, not a dog guy...a dog person?"

"Here's to dog people." Chris loudly laughed as they cheersed their beer bottles again.

"Here, here." Harper smiled as she snuggled with Louis. "Dogs are a lot better than 99% of people."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

"So are you going out tonight?" Harper asked with laughter still in her voice.

"I don't have to go out every night, you know." Chris lied with a sudden edge in his voice. "I know you think that I'm some flaky womanizer that can't-"

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold your horses, big guy." Harper stopped him from completely running off the rails. They really couldn't go more than ten minutes without fighting. "I didn't mean anything by it. To be honest, I'm a little jealous of your social life."

"Did ya wanna tag along?" Chris challenged with a cheeky raised eyebrow. Suddenly excited to show her the village nightlife.

"No no no." Harper laughed as she raised her hands up in defence. "I know Viola wants to marry me off to some hot local Italian man, but I don't think I'm ready for anything like that yet." Harper sighed with a smile. "You're the only man in my life, aren't cha Louis?"

"Fair enough." Chris smirked as he watched her play with her dog. But deep down, he was a little disappointed that she didn't want to hit the town with him. Seeing different sides to Harper was starting to become more intriguing than he'd ever admit.

"Go get 'em tiger." Harper giggled as she took a sip of her beer. "You go get lucky. I'm going try my hand at bread making. If I get lucky, then maybe I'll save ya some." 

Chris was in the middle of thanking her for thinking of him in a mocking way, when his cell phone went off.

"Sorry, I gotta take this." 

"No worries." Harper smiled as she threw one of Louis little dog toys for him.

"Kennedy." Chris announced in an authoritative voice that Harper had never heard him use before. "Tell me that you have better news for me...well, that is better." Chris chuckled as Harper tried not to listen to Chris's one sided conversation. "I'm willing to meet them halfway on this if we can get it closed...okay. Thanks, man. No no, you did all the real work on this one."

Chris did not sound like a handyman, but Harper didn't want to ruin their budding friendship by asking too many questions. Chris was a private man, and she respected that. Besides, she would be mortified if he were to start asking her questions about her divorce. The thought of saying the words out loud and explaining to him what her sister had done made her tummy hurt. 

\---------------------

That evening Chris ended up coming home alone. There had been one promising women that had caught his eye, but for some reason Chris couldn't pull the trigger on her and seal the deal. She was really pretty and seemed interested in him, but some local Italian man swooped in and managed to beat him to punch. 

Chris had no idea who the guy was. But he was taller than Chris and had a swagger about him that rubbed Chris the wrong way. He subtly let Chris know that he won and believed that he had put Chris in his place when he left with the prized woman only moments later. But the joke was on him because Chris really couldn't care less. He wasn't looking of love or anything truly important from any of the woman he had met in Italy. Easy come, easy go.

Instead, Chris called up Seb and invited him and Isabella to join him at the pub for a laugh and few drinks. It was nice to catch up, but the whole time Chris was thinking about Harper and wondering how her first batch of focaccia bread had turned out. 

Chris assumed that he would have to wait until the morning to have his questions answered. But waiting for him on his nightstand was the fruits of Harper's late night efforts. She had kept her word and saved him half a loaf of bread and left him a little note. Chris dug into the bread and moaned in delight as he picked up the small hand-written note that just said _"Another Peace Offering. Don't let it go to your head."_

He may have struck out that night, but after Harper's late night snack and cute note, Chris started to feel more like himself. As he drifted off the sleep, he was content for the first time in months. 


	5. A Storm Brewing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and Harper get to know each other during a thunderstorm

It was then, over the course of the next week or so, that Harper poured herself into her Italian cooking lessons and put as many miles as she could on her father’s swimming pool.

She spent day and night in the kitchen slaving over recipes with an obsessive quality that had started to concern Viola, but ended up endearing Harper to the many local handymen working on the guest house. 

Winning the men over proved to be a fairly easy task. Who doesn’t love a free home cooked meal? Especially when Chris had them working overtime refurbishing the old caretaker cottage. 

Harper was pretty popular with them and was under the impression that the men were just thankful for the free food, but Chris knew better. It wasn’t that Harper’s food was terrible; far from it. But Chris suspected that his handymen were more interested in catching a glimpse of her in the tiny black bikini than her lasagna. The men were respectful so Harper was none the wiser. She seemed to love having people to cook for, so Chris couldn’t bring himself to burst her bubble and say anything to her. Besides, her lasagna was pretty good and he didn't want her to stop making it for him.

To the untrained eye, Harper appeared to be fine. But something didn’t feel right to Chris. He was way too good at reading people to buy Harper’s bright and cheerful facade. But he was the first to admit that he was just as guilty as his handymen were. He also found himself enjoying the view whenever Harper was half naked in the pool; he’s only human after all. But, like Viola, he was starting to get a little concerned for her, as well. There was no way that one person liked to swim or cook that much. 

He really couldn’t figure her out. But Chris quickly learned her schedule and kept the workers away from the main house when she was doing her laps to safeguard her privacy. It was bad enough that he couldn't keep himself from gawking at her, the last thing she needed was an audience of strange men staring at her too. 

Little did they know, Harper was doing anything to take her mind off of Zac and Maddison and the mess her life was in. She had no idea what was going on back home and the more she considered the possibilities, the more broken and helpless she felt. But cooking made her feel like she was growing and learning something new. And swimming made her feel as though she were reclaiming a part of herself that she had stupidly given away for the wrong guy. Harper needed to do something to keep from falling apart, so she embraced both activities with gusto. 

Was she hiding from her life? Probably. But what a beautiful spot to hide in.

When Harper wasn’t cooking or swimming, Chris was surprised to see her spend hours drawing in a sketchbook that she had brought home from the local market one day. But for as curious as Chris was, whenever he came anywhere close to her, Harper would stop and close her book. Seemingly too shy about her art to show anyone. 

Chris had no idea what she was working on, or if she was a decent artist. But he had to admit that he liked watching Harper as she drew. There was something relaxed about her that he found soothing. 

Chris would work out by the pool and watch her on and off while her pencil danced across the page. Anything to take his mind off what he was going through. As the days went on, he’d never admit it, but Harper Dylan was proving to be a fairly nice distraction from what was currently going on in his life.

Chris wasn’t the only one that started to keep track of schedules. Harper paid attention to Chris’s and would make herself scarce when he came home from the bar. She didn’t want to run into any of his dates and possibly spoil the mood for him since her and her dogs had already unintentionally cock blocked him so many times in the past

But once the coast was clear, Harper was back in the kitchen perfecting her pasta dough and baking bread for the next day. It took a few all-nighters for Harper to perfect her Marinara sauce and she didn’t want to count how many lasagnas she had thrown out because they hadn’t been perfect. But it was her Ribollita and Polenta that she ended up being really impressed with. It was remarkable how the compliments she got after feeding the handymen fueled her soul and made her feel more successful than if she’d cured cancer. It was in feeding people that Harper slowly started to find her true authentic smile again. 

At first, Chris found Harper’s late night cooking sessions annoying with him being in the maid room right off the kitchen. Afterall, there was nothing but a thin wall between him and every pot and pan she rattled together. But hearing Harper hum to herself and cheer when something worked, made Chris smile into his pillow and share in her success. Eventually, he’d sneak out of his room and get a taste of whatever Harper was excited about. Seeing her geek out on proper spicy ratios was hilarious. 

Soon, Harper insisted that Chris had to stop stealing leftovers from the fridge and in turn, she would call him into the kitchen and feed him while the food was still fresh instead of him sneaking it from the fridge and half heartedly apologizing later. The only catch was, Chris had to be honest with her and tell her if something didn’t taste right. Soon they became a pretty good team, and Chris had to start adding in a few more laps around the property to work off the extra calories.

Sure, the food wasn’t half bad, but living together was still annoying for Chris for the most part no matter how distracting Harper was. The truth was, Chris was getting restless the longer he was in Italy and it was only a matter of time before he cracked. Hiding out in Italy was truly taking a toll on his soul and he hated how short his temper had gotten. Anything had the potential to set him off sometimes.

It didn’t help that Sebastian and Harper got along the second they met. It was obnoxious how well they clicked and how she took feeding his old friend as her own personal mission. Harper made Seb a non vegan lunch for him on a daily basis and insisted that Chris bring it to him at the marina like he was Seb’s a goddamn delivery boy. But when Harper started adding a second lunch for him, as well, Chris figured he had to stop his grumbling about it. His foul mood wasn’t Harper or Seb’s fault and he knew he shouldn’t be taking it out on them.

Other than feeding everyone Chris knew, Harper pretty much kept to herself. They spoke only about the villa, the dogs and made small talk that, surprisingly, didn’t make Chris want to jump off a cliff. Chris was trying to get used to sharing his space with another human being again, but for as much as Chris wanted to hold her at arm’s length, Harper Dylan was making it really hard for him to keep seeing her as a privileged snobby princess.

Especially when Harper inexplicably got the stray cat that hung out around the villa to stick around long enough to be petted. Chris had been leaving food out for that damn thing for about 4 months now and the grey fluffy animal wouldn’t even give him the time of day. But after two weeks of Harper being in Italy, she had named the ornery cat Sgt. Pepper and the cat had become Harper’s new best friend. He’d even caught the stray napping with Penny by the pool one day.

Chris also hated to admit that he was actually in Harper’s debt. After Harper made the trip to the villa next door armed with a basket of fresh pastries, Chris suspected that he had her to thank for their neighbours suddenly granting his workers permission to use their side gate to work on the guest cottage remodel.

There had been some bad blood between Chris and the neighbouring villa when he first moved in. First, because Chris represented another broken man that fed into the villa’s silly cursed reputation. But secondly, Chris had “accidentally” had sex with their adult niece when she had come to visit them a few months ago and, in turn, ended up giving them a whole new reason to hate him. 

Granted, Chris resented that she had been able to accomplish what he couldn’t. But the joke was on them. Because if their neighbours really believed that because Harper Dylan had slapped a pretty smile on her face to introduce herself, meant that she had broken that silly curse, they had another thing coming. She was just as cursed as he was.

It didn’t take a genius to see that there was a heavy sadness that Harper seemed to carry around with her. In another time or place, Chris would have followed his instincts and tried to uncover more parts of Harper’s personality in the hopes of figuring her out. But right now Chris was still so wrapped up in his own problems. If he thought too much about Harper, his mind would be at war with itself as his protectiveness outweighed his curiously. In the end, it was easier to believe that she was more of a burden than a friend.

But try as he might to keep on disliking her, she’d go do something cute that undid all of his efforts. For example, the way that her big blue eyes lit up everytime that Viola came into the room was just too endearing for him not to notice. Chris had grown very fond of Viola during his time in Italy, and it was nice to know that Harper appreciated the older Italian lady as much as he did. It got to the point that he would immediately be happy to see Viola, just to see Harper’s reaction to her. Because, try as she might to hide it, Harper was just as messed up as he was and seeing her so genuinely happy was a rare sight. 

If he was his old self, Chris would have gotten to the bottom of all of his suspicions about Harper. He never backed down from a challenge and his competitive nature had always been legendary. His curious mind and ability to read people had always served him well. But not now. Now Chris was guarded and worried that discovering more about her would lead to her wanting to know about him. 

Like clockwork, Chris would find Harper outside in the backyard watching the sunset with a faraway look in her eyes. Chris had always given her privacy during those moments, but he could tell that she was struggling with something. During those times, when it was only the two of them in the house, the sweet charming smile she had for people was gone and had been replaced by a look that reminded him a lot of how he was currently feeling. A part of Chris really wanted to go out there and help her through it, but he was just as broken as she was. What did he know about mending broken hearts?

When Chris first showed up in Italy he had tried to ease his loneliness by filling his bed every night with a new woman. But he had no idea that simply passing a friendly face in the halls, or sharing a cup of coffee with someone in the mornings would do more to mend his heart than whoring around would. The old him would have gone outside and talked with Harper, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Everything that he touched seemed to blow up in his face and he feared he’d only end up making things worse.

Every evening he put off helping Harper and instead he went into town. But the more that Chris got to know his boss’s daughter, the harder it was to bring women home. Especially on those nights when Harper would fix his shirt collar for him before he left or causally comb his long hair for him with her fingers. Those dorky thumbs ups and _“go get tiger”_ goodbyes that she’d give, not only made him laugh, but also made it a lot harder for those other women to measure up.

Not that he didn’t bring women home. Old habits die hard and Chris brought a woman home practically every night, but he was starting to feel a little guilty about it. Especially the one night when he was sure that he could hear Harper crying alone in her room upstairs. That night was rough.

Let’s just say that after hearing that, Chris hadn’t exactly brought his A game downstairs. Chris had never claimed to be an angel, but thinking about another woman when he was having sex with someone else, had never been something he’d been guilty of until he met Harper Dylan. But knowing that Harper was in pain broke his heart and made him feel like an asshole for not comforting her.

So needless to say, despite his best efforts, Harper was starting to grow on Chris but they were far from becoming besties. That was until one dark stormy night when Chris decided to let his guard down and admit that she wasn’t actually the devil.

 _“JESUS MOTHER FUCKING CHRIST!”_ Chris roared when a strange form he saw out of the corner of his eye scared the hell out of him when he was tip-toeing back to his room.

“Sorry!” Harper cutely whined from the living room and bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing at Chris’s reaction. The poor man practically jumped ten feet in the air and was shaking like a tiny chihuahua. She hadn’t meant to freak the poor guy out, but it was hilarious nonetheless.

“It’s almost 2 in the morning, Harpa. What da evah loving fack!” Chris cursed with his Boston accent as thick as ever as he ran his fingers through his long hair and tried to catch his breath. 

“Relax. I could ask you the same thing, you know.” Harper fired back from the couch, ready for another one of their fights to start. “I thought you came back from town hours ago.”

“Yeah, it took my...friend. It took my friend a while to fall asleep.” Chris explained as he sighed and took a seat in the armchair across from her. He never knew what to call the women that he slept with. They weren’t really his friends or his girlfriends, but he still wanted to be respectful of them. It helped that Harper seemed to understand and didn’t judge him.

“She’s upstairs? You don’t use your bedroom?” Harper asked, puzzled as to why he was coming from upstairs when his bedroom was downstairs beside the kitchen.

“No, not usually. I tend to sneak out and sleep somewhere else. I can’t really sleep with another person in my bed.” Chris explained with a causal shrug. “It’s a thing.”

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know.” Harper sighed as she closed her book, maybe she didn’t know his schedules as well as she thought she did.

“Is that a problem?” Chris asked, expecting a snarky answer from her.

“Nope.” Harper answered, popping the P at the end. She wasn’t in the mood to fight, not with a huge storm raging outside.

“So why are you up so late, huh?” Chris playfully enquired when she didn’t take the bait and bicker with him. “Cooking something?”

“Naw, storms always keep me up. It’s a thing.” Harper explained as she mimicked the casual shrug he had just given her.

As the thunder storm raged on outside, Harper asked Chris if he was hungry, and in true Chris Evans fashion he claimed that he could eat. Harper still didn’t know too much about him, but the one thing that she knew for sure was that no matter what the hour was, the man could always eat.

“Surprise, surprise, Chris Evans is hungry.” Harper teased. 

“Got me there.” Chris chuckled and tried not to let the cute twinkle in her eye mess with him. “Hey, do you have any of that carbonara left?”

“No you ate the last of it..for breakfast.” Harper mocked as she put her book down, pushed herself up off the couch and stepped over Penny on her way to the kitchen. “But I made some pizza dough today and I need a guinea pig.” 

“Well, I’m your pig.” Chris boasted, proud that his dumb joke made her laugh out loud. For as much as he tried to hate her, Harper had an honest laugh that reminded Chris of home.

Soon, Chris and Harper were both sitting at the large kitchen island, enjoying a fresh slice of pizza from the outdoor pizza oven. 

But their late night pizza party had turned into quite the ordeal. Once they were done arguing and debating over the proper way to toss the pizza dough, they had to figure out how to cook their pizzas with the storm raging outside.

Even though the outdoor pizza oven was dry and covered, Harper still refused to go out in the rain but forced Chris to brave the storm and cook them as she shouted instructions at him from the house. But in the end, as they stuffed their faces, they had to agree that it was all worth it. Fresh Italian pizza was heavenly.

“Did you want to wake up whoever is sleeping upstairs?” Harper asked as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. “See if she’s hungry?”

“Naw, it took her forever to pass out.” Chris quipped. “More for us. You’re really getting good at this, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Harper proudly beamed as she poured herself a glass of local italian wine and asked Chris if he’d like one, as well. Harper was enjoying Chris’s company far more than she ever thought she would, so much so, that she had almost forgotten about the thunderstorm outside.

“Sure.” Chris shyly smiled. He’d never admit it outloud, but he really liked seeing Harper like this, all happy with her guard down. Normally she was either running around in the kitchen with a serious look on her face, or swimming like she was training for the Olympics. Even when she was drawing she seemed so focused. Seeing her this relaxed was something new and he really didn’t hate it. “So, have you always cooked?”

“Ha! You tasted that eggplant parmesan that I destroyed.” Harper giggled at herself as she sipped her wine. “Did that taste like something a seasoned cook would make?”

“Still gives me nightmares.” Chris playfully shuddered at the memories. 

“Naw, my ex always hated my cooking.” Harper confessed as she tried to keep her voice light and happy in an attempt to keep her sadness from reaching her voice and spoiling their evening. Referring to Zac as her ex and thinking about all of her regrets still hurt so much that it physically hurt, but for as understanding as Chris appeared to be, she didn’t want to lay all of that on him. “He’d rather eat out. But I always loved cooking. I’m pretty rusty, but it’s coming back to me.”

“Well, I’m guessing that he never had your carbonara...or your pizza for that matter. Say are you going to eat that?” Chris asked as he eyed up her last uneaten slice.

“Go for it.” Harper sweetly smiled but jumped when a loud clap of thunder rolled in and startled her.

“You really hate storms, huh?” Chris stated the obvious as he chewed his food and watched Harper try to focus and calm herself down. He respected her efforts and found himself strangely proud of her. Jonathan’s daughter was proving to be a pretty tough cookie. 

“Storms aren’t my favourite thing. I’ve hated them since I was a kid. Started when I lived here, actually. I think it’s hearing the wind raging against the house...it makes me feel like it’s going to tear the walls down. I don’t get how people can sleep through that.”

“I can assure you that the walls here can withstand some pretty fierce wind.” Chris warmly smiled as he tried to put her mind at ease. “But if things ever got really bad, there’s a cellar on the side of the house. I doubt you’ll have to use it, but it’s always there just in case.”

“Thanks.” Harper softly whispered as she played with her fingers and tried to act strong and put together but feared that she was failing miserably. 

“For what?” That heaviness that Harper usually carried around with her was back and Chris found himself wanting happy carefree Harper back again.

“For not treating me like I’m stupid or like I’m a baby.” Harper admitted as she swallowed hard. Zac had chastised her many times over her fears and had made her feel small for confessing them to him. After a while she assumed that any of her issues were too big a burden to share with anyone else so she kept them all bottled up. It was refreshing to be taken seriously.

“Hey.” Chris warmly insisted as he took her hand to stop her from fidgeting. “I just told you that I can’t sleep beside another human being, and you didn’t even flinch. Everyone has their issues, I’m not one to judge.”

“I like that about you.” Harper honestly complimented him. For as many battles that they fought on a daily basis, Chris was still a person that Harper found herself slowly looking forward to seeing everyday. For as annoying and cocky as he could be at times, Chris didn’t treat her with kid gloves. But most of all, there was something about him that made Harper feel like he understood her sadness in a way that most people wouldn’t have.

“Look,” Chris started as he took his hand away and took a big gulp of the wine Harper had shared with him. “This storm isn’t going to let up any time soon. Do you want me to sit up with you for a while, maybe read with you for a little bit?”

“Sure.” Harper shyly smiled. “That would be great...but, if you’re tired…”

“Lemme grab my book.”

They moved back into the living room and Chris decided to light a fire in the big stone fireplace to hopefully make things a little cozier for her. Harper Dylan had been cooking for him for almost two weeks so hanging out with her during the storm was the least he could do. Besides, he wasn’t sure if he could sleep knowing that she was upset and all alone, anyway.

Harper got comfortable again with her book and soon Louis jumped into her lap and Chris did the same at the other end of the couch with Coco curled up in a ball beside him. It was nice and calm in the living room and Chris found himself filled with a peace that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was nice to just simply “be” with another person and not feel the need to fill the silence with unnecessary small talk and bullshit. 

But for as peaceful as Chris felt, he could tell that every single roar of thunder was unsettling Harper. She tried to hide it, but Chris would sense her muscles tense up and eventually he noticed her big blue eyes dart from her book to the window every time the wind brushed a tree branch against it. Harper was usually so guarded and in control, seeing her like this was really starting to pull on his heart. 

Without thinking too much about it, Chris scooted over and wrapped his arm around her and continued reading as if comforting her was a completely normal thing for him to do.

“Thanks.” Harper whispered with her bottom lip trembling, touched that Chris would do something so nice for her. It was rare for Chris to share his sweet side with anyone other than Viola, and the dogs, and Harper appreciated that he deemed her worthy. Afterall, so many people in her life really didn’t seem to care about her at all.

“Don’t mention it, Dylan.” Chris answered without taking his eyes from his book, trying not to let the wonderful smell of her coconut and vanilla scented shampoo affect him too deeply. “This never happened.”   
  
Having that friendly platonic support was all Harper needed to calm down and in less than 25 minutes, she had fallen asleep against Chris’s shoulder. Chris was able to take her book from her and turn off the lamp without waking her, but in doing so, he had accidentally caused her head to move from his shoulder to his chest. For as intimate as that felt, Chris decided to let her sleep against him for as long as he could stand it, having every intention of heading back to his room once he got tired. 

But Chris had to admit, even though he’d been sleeping his way through the greater Tuscany area, the longer Harper was curled up against him, the more he started to realize that this kind of physical touch meant more to him than any one of those hookups had. 

But having said that, no one was more surprised than Chris when he woke up the next morning and realized that he had spent the whole night with Harper on the couch. But as Chris looked around the living room he realized that it was only him and dogs there. 

“Hey, Pen.” Chris yawned and stretched as the mastiff placed her big boxy head in his lap. “Where’s your mom, huh?”

But as his words left his mouth, Chris could hear voices coming from the kitchen that ended up answering his question for him.

Chris could smell the mouthwatering scent of Harper’s famous breakfast foods in the air and followed his nose into the kitchen, only to stop dead in tracks when he realized who Harper was laughing with. 

Standing in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee with a half eaten plate of food in front of her, was the lovely black British tourist that Chris had met at the local bar the night before and took home with him. Chris froze in the doorway, not knowing what to say and attempted to judge what kind of humiliating situation he was in store for. 

“Morning, Chris.” The beautiful statuesque woman greeted him with a warm smile. 

“Morning...Lucy.” Chris slowly and unconvincingly greeted her by name, hoping that Lucy was actually her name and that he hadn’t forgotten it.

Harper and Lucy shared a knowing smile with each other that left Chris feeling as though the two of them had gotten pretty close while he had been sleeping on the couch. This would be one of those times that Chris wished that the ground would actually open up and swallow him whole.

“Well done. Lucy, it is.” The beautiful black British tourist beamed at Chris and then to Harper. “No need to introduce us, love, we’ve already gotten that out of the way, haven’t we, Harper.”

“Yes, and it was nice to be able to introduce myself without having to break out Google Translate.” Harper explained with laughter in her voice as she opened the cupboard and found Chris’s favourite New England Patriots coffee mug for him, knowing that he always wanted coffee first thing in the morning. 

“Huh?” Chris’s eyes darted from Harper to Lucy, having no idea what they were talking about. “You’ve barely left the villa since you got here. Who have you been trying to introduce yourself to?”

“Oh Chris, you have no idea! I can’t tell you how many women have come out of your room in the morning, take one look at me in the kitchen, and then freak out because they think that I’m your wife.” Harper and Lucy laughed together. 

“I reckon, I thought the same bloody thing.” Lucy giggled into her coffee mug. 

“I learned to keep a box of Kleenex handy in case they start crying. The poor things thinking that they’ve unknowingly busted up a marriage.” Harper giggled and motioned to the box of tissues on the counter. “The only Italian I’ve learned is _‘Non sono la moglie di Chris. Sono il compagno di stanza di Chris.’_ I’m not Chris’s wife, I’m Chris’s roommate. But I got that from the internet, so who knows if it’s right.” Harper shrugged. “But it’s correct enough to defuse the situation and keep them from finding you and smothering you with a pillow.” 

“I had no idea.” Chris sighed, thankful that the two of them were getting along and laughing at the absurd situation they all found themselves in. Harper had a great warmth about her that very effectively broke the tension and put everyone at ease. 

Chris thanked Harper for his coffee and watched the two of them interact while he drank it. The two women couldn’t have been more different from each other. Harper looking a little less stuffy than usual in her grey baggy off the shoulder sweater and cropped leggings and Lucy dressed in the same colourful dress she had worn last night at the bar Chris had picked her up at. But for as different as they were, Harper and Lucy had developed an easy friendship that Chris was grateful for. 

“I must say, it is a tad confusing to wake up alone in a beautiful strange house, only to find a gorgeous woman humming to herself whilst cooking breakfast with her huge gentle beast of dog following her around. Sorry to take over your morning like this, Harper.” Lucy added. “But I have to be going, I’m meeting my friends in Rome.”

“Oh, here, take some peaches with you.” Harper kindly offered. “I’ve never tasted anything like them before, they’ll blow your mind.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet of you. Thank you, love.” Lucy beamed as she hugged her goodbye. “You have my number if you’re ever in London. You have to let me take you out for lunch.”

“I’ll walk you out.” Chris offered as Harper started making him a plate of food. “Is there any of your focaccia bread left?” 

“Yup. I’ll heat it up for you.” Harper beamed, thrilled that he liked her bread enough to ask for it. It still wasn’t as good as Viola’s, but it was getting there.

Even though they had spent the evening naked together, Chris felt uncomfortable as he walked Lucy to the door. Waking up alone usually sent a pretty clear message to the women that he brought home. More times than not, they were gone before he woke up in the morning and he got to avoid these kind of goodbyes. 

Little did Chris know, since Harper had come into his life, she’d been making those goodbyes for him. He had never considered that uptight Harper would’ve been so cool.

“Breathe, Chris.” Lucy giggled at him as she called him out on his nervousness. “Last night was fun.”

“Yes, yes it was,” Chris agreed with her with a small sly smile, replaying a few of their steamy highlights in his mind. “Have a good time in Rome.”

“That’s the plan.” Lucy happily sighed. “Look, I know we just met…but...I’ll probably never see you again and I know I’ll kick myself later if I didn’t say something while I have the chance.” 

“Go for it.” Chris stood up straighter and held his breath while Lucy got ready to speak her mind. 

“You and Harper…”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Chris sensed where she was going with this and tried to stop her. “There’s no, me and Harper.”

“No? Well, maybe there bloody well should be.” Lucy quickly retorted in her thick British accent. “Italian phrases or no Italian phrases, the two of you sounded like a right jolly old married couple in there.”

“We live together for the time being, but it’s not like that. Trust me.” Chris chuckled at how wrong Lucy was. “The truth is, we barely tolerate each other.”

“Bollocks.” Lucy scoffed. “My alarm went off before either of you were awake. I saw the two of you on the sofa. You two were...it was...Well, it was quite a lovely scene, actually.”

“I don’t know what you think you saw, but Harper is my boss’s daughter. That’s all.” Chris shrugged as he tried to feign innocence and forget about the scent of Harper’s hair and how warm her body felt against his. 

“But your boss’s daughter is pretty great though, isn’t she?” Lucy sang out, pressing the issue with a twinkle in her eye. “With those big blue eyes and a body that deserves more than that big bulky jumper. She mentioned that she had taken up swimming, again. What I wouldn’t give to see her in a bathing suit; what a glorious sight that would be. Don’t tell me that your boss’s daughter has never crossed that dirty mind of yours.”

“Well, I can see that she’s definitely crossed yours.” Chris smirked. “I think this is the first time I’ve had a woman I’ve just slept with, play matchmaker and try to set me up with someone else the morning after.” 

“There’s a first time for everything.” Lucy quipped with a mischievous smile. “Why bother going into town every night when you have a woman like that under your roof?”

“It’s not like that, but you’re right. Harper isn’t as terrible as I thought she was.” Chris admitted with a heavy sigh. “She’s easy to talk to.”

“So she’s easy for you to talk to, now?” Lucy smirked as if she had caught him in something. “Chris, Chris, Chris. From the limited time that we’ve spent together, you don’t strike me as a man that opens up to just anyone. This is the longest conversation we’ve had, and I know what you look like naked and how fantastic you are in bed.” 

“You may be onto something there, I’m not exactly the sharing type.” Chris chuckled and resisted the urge to inform her that Harper had seen him naked, as well, knowing that it would just egg Lucy on if she knew how they had first met. “But Harper and I are friends, that’s it.”

“Pity.” Lucy sighed. “I wouldn’t mind swinging back this way for a chance to share a night with the two of you. The three of us together would be pretty amazing, ya think?”

Chris darkly smiled down at her through his long eyelashes as he cupped her cheek in his hand and gazed into her big brown eyes. “Amazing? You were the one that was pretty amazing last night...Sorry for all of the confusion in the morning. I just can’t sleep if there’s someone beside me. Maybe I should have said something.”

“Don’t apologize if you’re not sorry, Chris.” Lucy hissed as she stood up on her toes and placed a kiss on his mouth and boldly bit down and dragged her teeth across his plump bottom lip. “I’m a big girl. I knew what was in store for us before you had even bought me my first drink. But just to put a button on it, love, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that you seemed to sleep quite soundly with Harper in your arms this morning. Your handsome face rested on the top of her beautiful head. I told you, it was lovely. Far more meaningful than just merely sleeping beside someone. I wished that I could’ve nestled in between the two of you.”

Instead of entertaining Lucy’s theory, Chris kissed her back and groaned into her mouth as he deepened their kiss and tasted her full lips. His heart started racing and his body was responding to her the same way it had last night, but there was something stopping Chris from taking things further and he couldn’t figure out what it was. 

Chris pulled away but kept his hand on Lucy’s cheek and let his fingers dance down her flawless golden brown skin. He could smell her provocative musky perfume and cursed himself for not inviting her back inside. Lucy was proving to be very enticing. She was not only beautiful, smart and sexy, but she had a confidence about her that reminded him of the confidence he had possessed within himself before he’d run away to Italy. 

Lucy was perfect, but all Chris could think about was going back into the kitchen to eat breakfast with Harper and find out what she had planned for the day, because he’d love to take her and the dogs out on the water and show off his boat. Maybe they could see if Seb and Isabella were free and make a whole day out of it.

All at once it dawned on Chris that Lucy may be right about his feelings for Harper and it caused a cold chill to run down his spine. Chris stood up straighter and completely closed himself off emotionally and quickly wished Lucy luck in Rome and said his goodbyes. 

Instead of going back into the house, Chris skipped breakfast and took off to oversee the work on the old caretaker’s cottage. Because catching real feelings for Harper Dylan was completely unacceptable. 


	6. Unexpected

Life went on at Villa Della Centri. Harper continued on in her quest to become the best Italian chef she could be, and fed every person that stepped foot in the villa. She even got a little braver and ventured out to the markets to explore the local businesses and hung out with Seb and Isabella whenever she was in town. 

The two of them were simply a riot and so much fun to be around. But the way that they would finish each other's sentences and make puppy dog eyes at each other made Harper long to have that kind of love in her life one day. Seb and Isabella were sickeningly sweet and sometimes their happiness made Harper understandably jealous. She had always gotten the feeling that Chris could only handle them in small doses sometimes, and now she understood why. Their relationship was the ultimate goal and was a reminder of what she was missing from her life.

But, for the most part, life in Italy was pretty quaint and peaceful. The most monumental thing to happen in days was Harper finally giving her father’s secretary the green light to start the ball rolling on her divorce proceedings. 

That, and Chris had gone back to being a jackass.

Harper had no idea what she had done to piss him off this time, but she had barely seen the guy in days. She had tracked him down to apologize for befriending Lucy, and possibly embarrassing him in front of her, but Chris insisted that it was no big deal but quickly ended their conversation and found a reason to go into town, leaving her completely confused as to what she had done wrong this time. 

In the evenings that followed, Harper began to notice that Chris would go into town as he usually did, but when morning came, Harper hadn’t seen any women coming out of his room. Something was off with him, but Harper figured that Lucy, being as awesome as she was, had done a number on the poor guy and no other woman could fill her shoes...or his bed for that matter.

However, Harper had her own problems to deal with and was in no position to try and help him out. She’d been in Italy for close to a month and had yet to take her phone out of her nightstand to reconnect with the outside world and instead used a spare one that Viola had dropped off for her for emergencies. She knew that she had to stop dragging her feet and let her friends know that she was still alive and find out if she still had a job waiting for her in Boston once she was ready to go back.

Not everyone could suddenly take so much time off of work, so Harper was well aware of her privilege in this area. Harper had been the head graphic designer at Vantage Point Magazine ever since it’s debut issue. But when her and Zac decided to try and have a baby, Harper went from being a full time employee to freelance; much to her boss’s dismay. 

Harper had wanted the freedom to cut back on her workload if needed, and Zac loved the idea of having a stay at home mother raising their future kids. But now that she was free of Zac's expectations, Harper had begun to see this as another one of his stupid ideas. 

Being freelance gave her boss the opportunity to hire Elijah Bishop, her junior designer as a backup. Even though Harper's boss would rather her run the show on every issue, Harper was confident that Elijah was picking on the slack for her back home.

Because, the truth was, Harper wasn’t much help to anyone at the moment. Currently she was on her 35th lap in a swimming pool on the Tuscany coast, not at her desk surrounded by her friends and coworkers. But she had faith that they could handle things while she hid from the world. She was actually more worried about them being mad at her for disappearing, than she was about this month’s issue being a success.

Meanwhile, while Harper swam her heart out, Chris was back in the guest cottage trying to make sense of the new set of plans that Jonathon’s builder had sent down that morning. He could feel his blood start to boil the longer he tried to make sense of the Italian instructions. Chris had specifically requested (three different times) that all plans be translated into English. At this point, Chris couldn’t help but suspect that the builder was messing with him for not knowing Italian. No one back home would have gotten away with treating Chris with such disrespect.

His mood was not helped by the fact that he had just gotten a call from the office letting him know that one of his subordinates had managed to close the Germany deal without him. And to add insult to injury, she had also closed at lower cost than what he had been offering; saving the company millions. Chris was a competitive guy and hated that someone else had gotten the jump on him. But what did he expect? He’d been hiding out in Italy for months now. Of course his colleagues in the office had the advantage on him. 

“Maybe you could have the young Ms. Dylan to talk to him?” Marco suggested in jest when Chris gave up and threw the plans across the room in frustration.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Chris snapped at his forman. For days Chris had been doing his best to ignore his budding feelings for Harper and didn’t appreciate Marco bringing her up. 

“Well,” Marco started to explain in a softer tone, attempting to calm his boss down. “She managed to get permission from the neighbours to use the side gate...maybe a gentler touch will yield a better result?”

“Are you seriously questioning my managerial style?” Chris clarified with ice in his voice. Suggesting that anyone, especially Harper, would be better at doing his job infuriated him. “I highly doubt that a smile and basket of muffins is going to make him do his damn job. Maybe ending his contract would be all the motivation that asshole needs!”

Chris’s tone caused Marco to stand up a little straighter and the other men mulling around began to make themselves scarce. 

Chris was making a scene and losing control of his temper. But he just couldn’t seem to reel himself in. All of his adult life Chris had been in charge and in control; especially in his professional life. Now he couldn't stop thinking about his boss’s daughter and couldn’t seem to organize a simple guest cottage remodel. Everything felt like it was slipping from his fingers and Chris hated that feeling with a burning passion. 

“My apologies, Mr. Evans.” Marco nodded, backing down from the confrontation; seemingly used to his boss’s mood swings. 

Chris could tell by his expression and tone and that he was being “managed” by Marco. His foreman was a good man and didn’t deserve the brunt of his bad attitude. But Chris couldn’t decide what he hated more; the fact that he was losing his professional edge, or that his foreman needed to tend to his bruised ego and talk him down as if he were a spoiled brat.

“It’s okay, Marco.” Chris sighed as he ran his hand down his face as he tried to calm down and act like an adult. “I’ll contact the builder and have him send a new set of plans in the morning. If they aren’t translated, I’ll have you find me another company.”

“Very well.” Marco smiled his usual friendly smile to let Chris know that there were no hard feelings. “In the meantime, would like me and the men to get started on the herb garden at the main house?”

“Herb garden?” This was the first time that Chris had heard of any new work to be done at the villa. He began to worry that maybe it had slipped his mind and that he was truly as useless as he felt. 

“Yes, Ms. Dylan had expressed a desire to have one -” Marco started to explain but Chris had stormed off before he could finish. 

This was completely outrageous Chris fumed to himself as he marched up to the main house. Maybe he wasn’t as in charge of the office as he’d like, but he was in charge of this villa whether Harper liked it or not. 

  
\--------------

“Harper!” Chris came storming through the backyard roaring her name over and over again, knowing that she was usually in her own world while she was swimming. But he wasn’t messing around. He was pissed off and needed answers now. _“Harper!”_

“Calm the fuck down, Chris!” Harper cursed before she finished her lap and jumped out of the pool, her stamina and strength greatly improving since her first swim. “Where’s the fire?” Harper defiantly asked, dripping with her hands on her hips.

Chris’s red hot temper was fading the longer he took in the sight of Harper in her tiny black bikini soaking wet and making no move to cover up and grab a towel. Chris had spent days avoiding her and tried his best to resist thinking of her as anything more than an annoying house guest that he had to deal with. But he just couldn’t stop staring at her. Lucy was right, Harper in a bikini was a sight to behold.

“An herb garden?” Chris asked, trying to keep his voice calm and measured even though he had been shaking with rage the whole walk up from the guest cottage. 

“What’s wrong with an herb garden?” Harper snapped back. Chris had failed miserably at keeping the distain from his voice and the condescending tone he was using was really pissing Harper off; especially since this was the first time Chris had really spoken to her since Lucy left. Even under the best circumstances, Harper hated being managed and treated as though she were a child. For the foreseeable future, this was her home too, so he’d just have to get over it.

“Well, nothing in theory.” Chris sarcastically volleyed back as Penny wondered over and Chris patted her head. “But when you take men away from a project that I’m working then, yes, I’d say that an herb garden is a pretty big fucking problem.” 

“Relax.” Harper sighed as she dived back into the pool to continue her workout and happened to miss the exasperated look on Chris’s face when she defied him. 

If Harper hated being spoken to as a child, Chris hated being so curtly dismissed even more. Especially when he was mad as hell and had a lot of pent up fight in him. He wasn’t used to being treated this way, whether from snobby Italian builders, or bratty rich socialites. It never really dawned on Chris until today that his stay in Italy might result in him losing his power. Power that he had spent years earning. Power that he could feel slipping through his fingers in real time.

“Harper!” Chris yelled to her as loud as he could. He wasn’t sure if he was more angry at her for ignoring him or at himself for caring so much about what she thought of him. “The guest cottage is the priority here not your silly little pet project!”

Chris knew that Harper could hear him this time but just kept on swimming without a care in the world. Maybe this was her payback for him ignoring her for the past few days. She had the upper hand now and was giving him a taste of his own medicine; something that Chris couldn’t stand for; not today.

“Fuck this!” Chris spat out after she made no attempt to stop swimming and give him the time of day.

Without thinking twice, Chris kicked off his shoes, peeled off his shirt and jumped into the pool. Then with one swift motion he hooked his arm around her waist to stop her and prove that he meant business.

“Oh my god!” Harper sputtered and coughed when she felt a foreign arm grab her while she was in mid stroke. “Are you fucking kidding me!” Harper shouted as she stood up and shoved his broad chest with both hands like a kitten fighting against a brick wall.

“I’m trying to stay on schedule!” Chris fired back, her shove barely registering with him. “You have no right to pull my men off the guest cottage remodel and ask them to build you a stupid little herb garden. Are you out of your mind? Who do you think you are? I have a job to do!”

“Marco loved the idea.” Harper yelled back, refusing to back down the way that she had backed down so many times when Zac was mad at her about something. Chris was making her feel small and she refused to feel that way again. “He told me himself that it would take a full day of work, tops, since Louis destroyed most of the flower beds anyway!” 

“That’s not the fucking point, _princess!”_ Chris coldly sneered as he took a menacing step towards her and towered over her. For a second Chris believed that he had won and finally put Harper Dylan in her place until she wound up and left a sharp resounding slap across his face that immediately ended their fight and very effectively snapped them both out of their rage.

“I...I…” Harper stammered as tears immediately began to fall from her eyes once she realized what she had done. She had never hit anyone before and it was a jarring feeling to unleash such violence, especially on someone that she considered her friend. 

Chris looked like a sad puppy as he registered what had just happened. The look on his face was sobering and hurt Harper in a way that she had never felt before. She hated herself so much in that moment that a part of her wished that Chris would hit her back, even though he’d never do that in a million years. “I...shouldn’t. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” 

“I deserved it.” Chris admitted, feeling like an asshole again. His conscience hurt him more than his cheek. Phyiscally intimaditing Harper over a stupid garden was the height of stupidity. He knew he had been fucked up for a long time now, but taking it out on Harper because she pushed his buttons was outrageous. Harper had been on his mind ever since Lucy had left, and this was not the way his fantasies of her had played out in his mind. But worse, this was not the man that his mother had raised.

“No, you didn’t.” Harper sobbed as she turned her back to him in the water and broke down. “I’m so fucked up, Chris.” Harper realized that she was no closer to letting go of the pain that Zac and Maddison had inflicted on her. It was always there just below the surface, like a festering wound. Chris poked at her and all she saw was Zac and her sister and all of the times that she should have fought back. She snapped and it wasn’t fair to Chris at all. “I’m so sorry. I’ve never done anything like that before.” 

“Shh. I shouldn't have grabbed you like that, I don’t know what I was thinking...” Chris soothed when her shoulders shook and her petite body became racked with sobs. “Come here.” Chris turned her around in the water and wrapped his arms around her and let her cry on his bare chest. “You said it yourself, this place doesn’t attract the most stable people in the world.” Chris repeated what she had said to him once and felt her smile against his skin while she continued to cry. “It...it wasn’t you that I was yelling at...does that make any sense? It wasn’t you.”

“Yes.” Harper sniffed and nodded as she tried to get her words out. “I don’t think that it was you that I slapped, either.”

“Please don’t cry, Dylan.” Chris begged as he held her closer. “I won’t yell at you like that again, I promise.” Chris vowed not only to her, but to himself, as well.

“Your shorts... are all... wet.” Harper hiccuped as she gazed up at him with a childlike trust in her eyes and that made time stop for Chris.

Chris looked down at Harper in his arms and felt something swirling around in his chest that was quickly consuming him. Harper Dylan had just slapped the hell out of him and here he was in the middle of a swimming pool comforting her and thinking that she was the most precious person that he had ever laid eyes on. What the fuck was happening? This wasn’t why he came to Italy, whatever he was feeling for her would only complicate things for him in the long run. But he couldn't stop his heart from opening and warming to her. 

He knew that he needed to stop whatever was happening between them, but before Chris could turn away, Harper ran both of her hands up his broad chest and he could feel that one of them was considerably warmer than the other one.

“Does it hurt bad?” Chris softly asked with concern as he took the hand that had slapped him, tenderly ran his palm over it and then placed it under the water to help sooth it.

“I hit you. Who does that? I deserve it to hurt.” Harper whimpered and hiccuped again as she tried to swallow down her sobs and calm herself down.

“No, Harper.” Chris shook his head and tucked some of her wet hair behind her ear while she sucked in her bottom lip. “I don’t want that. You don’t deserve to be hurt...ever.” Chris emphasised in a way that made Harper’s heart skip a beat. She trusted his words in a way that was impossible for her to define. For a moment Harper wasn’t alone in the world anymore and it was such a powerful feeling. It was as if Chris’s concern for her was the missing puzzle piece that she needed to start healing and feel connected to the world again.

Chris felt it too as he held her head in both of his hands and continued to look down into her big blue eyes. It was almost as if Chris was looking at Harper Dylan for the first time and she completely took his breath away. He felt so helpless and powerful at the same time and he just couldn’t make sense of it. Chris hadn’t felt as confident and hopeful since his whole world had fallen apart 6 months ago. It was almost as if he was finally coming home and he had no idea how satisfying that feeling could be until Harper slapped him and made him come to his senses.

Harper wasn’t sure what was happening either, but her heart started to beat faster and she licked her lips in the hopes that Chris might kiss her. But in all honesty, their connection was so strong as they looked into each other’s eyes, a kiss seemed far less intimate than the moment that they were sharing. It was as if their souls were connecting in a way that each of them would remember for the rest of their lives. 

“Harper, dear.” Viola called out to her from the kitchen door and snapped them out of the almost trance like state they were in. “Your guests have arrived.”

“Guests?” Both Harper and Chris tried to clarify in unison, making Viola giggle at their joined reaction.

“Did you invite people here without saying anything to me?” Chris incredulously asked as he finally let her go and tried to shake off the heavy emotions he was feeling. 

Chris was back to being furious again and it made Harper frown. To Chris, the idea of sharing his space with even more people left him feeling offended and betrayed and Harper couldn’t keep up with his mercurial emotions. But in his defence, this place had been his sanctuary for months now, and even though he might have feelings for Harper, Chris didn’t want to lose the villa to a bunch of strangers. 

“Of course I didn’t.” Harper nearly whimpered.

“Because this isn’t some kind of party house.” Chris lectured her with his emotional walls up as high as ever. He refused to soften to Harper’s pouty lip that he regretted not kissing when he had the chance, 

“Yeah, because I’m the big party animal.” Harper sarcastically shot back but was still puzzled as to who could possibly want to visit her Italy. “Oh my god, could it be my dad?” Harper exclaimed with her voice full of joy. Harper’s heart couldn’t help but be filled with hope at the thought that her father might want to check up on her and see how she was doing. She almost felt like a kid again.

“Jonathan is in Tokyo.” Chris huffed as he made his way through the water and to the edge of the pool; leaving Harper devastated. It was embarrassing to realize that Chris, the caretaker, knew more about her father’s travel plans than she did so she tucked away any warm and fuzzy hopeful feelings for her father and swore, in vain, to never slip up and show them again. 

“No, piccolo.” Viola smiled and tried to project as much warmth as she could when she saw how disappointed Harper looked alone in the middle of the pool. For a moment Harper reminded Viola of the sad little girl that she used to know when Harper was a child and all she wanted to do was hug her. “Would you like me to get her name?”

“Her! Did you say _her?”_ Harper cried when she suddenly considered that maybe Maddison had flown to Italy. “If it’s my _sister_ …” Harper panicked and looked around trying to figure out where to hide. After all this time, Harper was no closer to figuring out how she felt about her sister. Filing for divorce was an easy call when it came to Zac, but at this point, Harper could easily hug or strangle Maddison. Because, as hurt as she was, a big part of Harper wanted everything to go back to the way things were and have her sister back, but Harper knew that wasn’t possible. Not yet anyway.

“Your sister?” Chris asked with concern when he heard the terrified fear that was thick in Harper’s voice. Chris had no idea what was going on with her, but he suddenly found himself ready to protect Harper from anything or anyone that could cause her voice to shake like that.

Before Harper could decide what to do, a little blonde 2½ year old girl with pigtails sailed past Viola and Chris figured that no one needed protection from such an adorable little kid. Harper blinked and couldn’t believe that her goddaughter, Holly Ferguson, was suddenly in Italy and smiling her gorgeous big smile at her. 

_“Holly!!”_ Harper exclaimed, completely forgetting that she had just been crying her eyes out and having a panic attack only seconds before. Holly usually had that effect on her. Ever since Holly was born she’d been like a living breathing silver lining. Harper had never known a happier kid in her life. 

_“Auntie Harps!!”_ The little girl squealed back as all three of the dogs ran to greet their favourite little girl. Harper beamed with pride as she watched Holly expertly pick up Louis the way that she had taught her to when she first introduced them ages ago. “Lulu and Coco! And Pens, too! I misseded you! Do the puppies wanna swim wit you, too?”

“Don’t throw the dogs in the pool, Holly Marie Ferguson!” Harper warned with laughter in her voice as she dried her eyes and made her way to the edge of the pool. Coco loved to swim but Louis sank like a stone and took forever to dry off.

“I won’t, Auntie Harps.” Holly sweetly sang out, making Harper’s heart just want to burst. What Harper wouldn’t give to have ten little girls just like her.

“Harps?” Chis questioned with a raised eyebrow, amused that Harper had such a cute nickname.

“Where’s your mama, baby girl?” Harper smiled after she rolled her eyes at Chris’s teasing. She could hear Holly’s mother, April Ferguson, calling for her daughter from the house and Harper braced herself, knowing that she would soon have to answer to her best friend. And if Harper knew April, she was sure that she had brought her sister Lauren (their magazine’s sub editor) with her, as well.

“I found her Mommy!” Holly exclaimed with the purest joy in her voice. Harper couldn’t help but smile when Holly carefully put Louis down on his feet and jumped up and down as she clapped her little hands together to celebrate her success. “Auntie Harps, is right here in da big pool! You don’ts have to worry about her. She’s right here! I found her all by myself!” 

Chris put on his game face as he gave Harper a hand out of the pool and tossed her a towel as if they were old friends, before wrapping around another one around his wet shorts. Chris was still completely confused about their blow up in the pool and all of the emotions that had bubbled up to the surface so he was really grateful that a distraction had dropped in out of the blue. A very cute little distraction at that.

“Holly, there you are! Sorry, Harp.” April, their magazine’s stylist called out from the house, looking anything but stylish in her comfy travel clothes. “She slept through the whole flight, so now she’s just ready to hit the ground running, apparently!”

Harper was proved right as both the Furguson sisters made their way into the backyard, followed by Elijah Bishop, their junior designer. Who should be back in Boston holding down the fort while Harper was hiding out in Itay waiting for her father’s villa to magically fix her. 

“What are you guys doing here!” Harper beamed and ignored the confused and lost look on Chris’s face. “Lauren, aren’t you editing this issue?”

“You bet your sweet ass, I am.” Lauren charmingly bragged. 

Harper knew that she should be making introductions, but Holly cuddles were just too tempting. Harper couldn’t hold back her glee as she scooped up her goddaughter and made her giggle when her wet hair tickled the little girl’s cheek. “Did you bring your swimsuit, honeybun?” Harper conspired with her goddaughter through their giggles while the adults made their way out into the backyard and checked out their surroundings. “I had no idea you guys were coming.”

“Well, if you had checked your phone…” April scolded her with a twinkle in her eye, happy to see that Harper was indeed alive and well after nothing but radio silence for weeks.

“You can’t just drop off the face of the planet for almost a whole damn month and expect us not to notice.” Lauren, explained as she took in the beautiful view of the water. “Holy shit, though. This is one helluva place to disappear to, though, isn’t it?” 

“You guys didn’t have to come all this way…” Harper started to explain as she set Holly on her feet and let her play with the dogs. “I mean it’s great to see you…but I’m fine. I’m great, actually.” Harper lied through her teeth as Chris subtly made a face that privately called her out on her bullshit. “Things are...good. I was just …” The more Harper spoke the less convincing she sounded so she stopped lying in mid sentence. 

“There’s a big fashion show in Rome in a few days.” Elijah her junior designer spoke up and saved her from embarrassment as he greeted Harper with a hug. Not caring that she was still wet. “So we won't be here long. It’s not every day you get to check up on a friend on the company dime, so we all took advantage of it. Plus, don’t tell Lauren, but I kinda need your help on a few things.” He teased with a wink. 

Harper took a deep breath and quickly introduced her friends to Viola and Chris and tried to ignore the looks that her friends gave her when she referred to Chris as “the caretaker.” 

They didn’t believe her for a second, and Harper didn’t really blame them. If they had showed up a few minutes later and saw her and Chris in the pool, who knows what they would have ended up walking in on. Because if Harper was being honest with herself, if Viola hadn’t interrupted them, she was just moments away from taking matters into her own hands and kissing the life out of him. But in doing so, possibly fucking up her life even more than it already was.


	7. Friends and Strangers

All of Harper’s senses were humming as she sat out by the pool alongside her three friends, with her goddaughter Holly sitting in her lap. She hadn’t been surrounded by so many people all at once in a while and their lively energy was a lot for her to keep up with. But gosh, Harper almost forgot how much she loved Holly and the Furguson sisters...and Elijah wasn’t a terrible addition to her day either.

“Oh Viola, thank you. But you didn’t have to go to so much trouble.” Harper smiled up at the older lady as she brought out a tray of drinks for everyone and a small bowl of gelato for Holly.

“It’s no trouble, piccolo.” Viola beamed with pride as she noticed how much happier Harper looked surrounded by her friends from Boston. Whatever had happened between Harper and Chris out in the pool seemed to be forgotten, but Viola couldn’t decide if that was for the best or not. Although, Viola did breathe a little easier when she noticed Chris in the yard working with his foreman, Marco. The two of them were working, but Chris was also discreetly keeping a watchful eye on Harper as she socialized. Chris and Viola shared an acknowledging nod that put her mind at ease. That man had a good heart and Viola trusted Chris to look after Harper. “It’s what I do. Have fun, dear. I’ll be out soon with some more refreshments. I trust that you are all staying for dinner?”

“Of course.” Harper answered for them. “And I’ll get the guest rooms set up for them, too. You don’t have to go to any trouble.”

“So Italy.” Elijah finally asked once Viola had gone back into the house. Having never been one to beat around the bush. “I get it, it’s gorgeous and hot handymen are a lot of fun.” Elijah quietly mocked so that Chris couldn’t hear him while he discussed the herb garden with Marco, only a few yards away. “But it’s been almost a month, Harp. I love that you believe in me and all, but I’m merely a sidekick to your superhero. I can’t do your job forever. What are you doin’ out here anyway?”

“I...I…” Harper stammered as she looked into all of their questioning eyes and fidgeted with her fingers. “I’m just taking a mental health...month, I guess, maybe.” Not sounding very confident since she hasn't had to answer to anyone in nearly a month. “Things in my life changed pretty drastically and I just needed some time.”

“So that’s what we’re going with?” Lauren challenged her as she started applying sunscreen to her arms. “Things in your life changing pretty drastically is probably the most adorable euphemism for a divorce I’ve ever heard. But it works, I guess. I love your tan by the way. Since when do you get any sun?” 

“You guys know?” Harper gulped. She’s not sure what she was expecting, of course news would either get out eventually or her friends would have put two and two together for themselves at some point.

“Yup.” Holly answered from her lap as she played with Coco. “Mommy says that we get you in the divorce. I wanna keep you.”

“Of course you get to keep me, pumpkin.” Harper assured Holly as she kissed the back of her goddaughter’s head while everyone snickered at the little girl’s attempt to repeat the little bits of adult conversation that she had overheard over the past month.

“So you’re here to put your life back together and mend your heart.” April pointed out to Harper but in a tone that suggested that she was actually speaking in a way that her young daughter would understand.

“Like a pretty princess bandaid for your heart!” Holly squealed as Coco licked her smiling face and tried to steal some of her gelato.

“Exactly, sweetheart.” Harper beamed as she hugged Holly close. “Gosh, I really missed you, kiddo. You’re getting so big.”

“So does that mean you have a plan?” Elijah asked as he helped himself to the fresh lemonade that Viola had made them.

“I dunno, I read, ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’” Harper smirked at him as she shrugged. “So far the eating part has been doing wonders, so I think I’ll stick to that.”

“Are you sure that this is a ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ situation, or is this maybe a ‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back’ kinda deal.” Elijah teased as he lowered his sunglasses and watched in awe as Chris ran his hands through his long hair as he looked over the plans for Harper’s herb garden. Chris was a sight with the bright Italian sun shining in his hair and his biceps stretching the fabric of his old shirt. Harper had been trying to hide it, but Elijah could always read her like a book and had seen Harper’s eyes drift off to the “caretaker” every now and then. He was on to her, and would love to see her live a little and enjoy herself.

“Ahhh no.” Harper quickly corrected him. “No men, I’m swearing them off. They’re more trouble than they’re worth. This is more of a ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ kinda deal. I’ve been cooking up a storm lately. I’ll stick to pizza, it'll never let me down.” 

“More men for me then.” Elijah quipped and feigned innocence when April smacked him and motioned to her daughter in Harper’s lap, implying that he needed to try and censor himself more. Something that was nearly impossible for the adorable 25 year old junior graphic designer to do. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I do recall some romance happening in that movie, by the way. Diane Lane was fantastic in that one.”

“I swear I’ve seen...Chris is it? I swear I’ve seen Chris before somewhere.” Lauren poundered almost to herself as her and Elijah stalked Chris and watched him and Marco take measurements only about ten feet away from them. Clearly appreciating the caretaker’s shirtless buff physique and not being very subtle about it. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Maybe he’s a model or an actor?” Elijah considered as he drooled and conspired with Lauren.

“Hey.” April soothed as she reached out and took Harper’s hand while the other two continued to check Chris out while he worked in the sun. “How worried do I have to be about you? When did things implode with Zac? I’ve been texting you everyday for weeks now.”

“Say, why don’t we go and put our suits on. Whaddya say, Holly Bear.” Lauren suggested to her niece when she noticed the look on Harper’s face when April brought up Zac. Lauren and Elijah knew that April had what it took to get the truth out of Harper and they wanted to give her a minute to get the job done.

Chris tried not to, but he overheard Harper’s friend ask about her husband, and Chris was curious to hear Harper’s answer. Actually, that wasn’t exactly true. Chris had only been half listening to everything that Marco had said to him about the herb garden. Chris was far more interested in whatever conversation Harper was having with her friends; minus them shamelessly checking him out as if he couldn’t hear them.

“After four long years, Zac and I are finally done.” Harper blurted out as soon and her and April were somewhat alone. It felt good to say the words out loud instead of thinking them in her head. “I officially filed for divorce the other day. My dad is taking care of it...well, his secretary and his legal department are mostly taking care of it for the time being. But things are in motion. We signed prenups and I don’t want anything from him, so it should be fairly painless.”

“I’m so sorry, Harp.” April sighed as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. “I know you loved him.”

“Did I?” Harper bitterly laughed. “I guess I did, for as much good as it did me. What you’re not going to convince me to go back to him and try and work things out.”

“Oh sweetheart, I love you, but you can be such a dummy sometimes.” April laughed as she made Harper scoot over on her patio lounger. Harper made room for April beside her and felt an overwhelming sense of love and acceptance when her best friend wrapped her arms around her and held her close as if she were cuddling Holly. “I know you’re sad, but I haven’t seen you look so much like yourself in a really long time.”

“Huh?” Harper giggled at her. April, as artistic and bohemian as she was, always had a way of centering her and Harper had missed that feeling so much. “Like myself? What do you mean?”

Chris, who was still trying to secretly eavesdrop, was confused as well. He took Marco’s shovel and tried to find something to do closer to where Harper and April were sitting so he could find out what April meant by that. He had always prided himself on being a pretty good judge of character and believed that he already had Harper Dylan all figured out. 

But the more Chris thought about it, the more he realized that, appearance wise, Harper had slowly stopped looking like the stuffy librarian that had originally moved into the villa. Her transformation had been so slow, Chris had barely noticed. 

“For years you’ve been twisting yourself into this boring version of the rich one percenter housewife that Zac wanted you to be.” April explained as she kissed Harper’s temple and hugged her close. “A trophy wife that could make him look more successful than he actually was. I could see the toll that it took on you. You stopped dressing like yourself and gave up so many things that made you cool and special.”

“Like what?”

“You know what.” April challenged her. “You know that fake ass country club life wasn’t for you. When was the last time that you painted, huh? When was the last time that a karaoke mic had to be pried out of your hands at the end of the night? When was the last time that you stayed up all night playing poker?”

“Oh come on!” Harper exclaimed with laughter in her voice.

“Shut up. You were a straight up card shark back in the day!” April giggled as Harper playfully smacked her. The two of them were adorable together and Chris tried not to laugh out loud and bring attention to himself. 

“How many times did you beat the house, then go and spend all your winnings on me when I needed the money? Not to mention how you used to make kickboxing look like a damn art form. You were the kind of person that I wanted to be like one day...the kind of badass woman that I wanted to be Holly’s godmother.” April sincerely added in a soft voice.

“Oh, April. I stayed up all night playing poker twice, tops. Maybe three times. Wait, I thought you liked Zac.” Harper asked as she puffed out a laugh at how perceptive her friend was. Harper actually missed the woman that April had described and wondered if she could ever become her again. 

“I didn’t hate him or anything. Besides, when it comes to relationships, I'm not one to judge. I have my own problems.” April giggled and made a funny pained expression over her past romantic mistakes. “But once you decided that he was the one, I really wanted it to work out for you. I watched you give up so much for him.”

“It wasn’t that bad...was it?” Harper asked, even though she knew that April was on to something.

“All of the volunteer work that you used to do? The animal shelter and all the food bank work?” April reminded her. “To tell you the truth, that’s when I got scared for you. I get cutting back, but you used to love working with those kids at the community center. I never thought that you’d give that up in a million years.”

After hearing about Harper’s extensive volunteer work, Chris was stunned and almost tripped over Marco’s shovel. He never would have guessed in a million years that one of Jonathan Dylan’s daughters would have spent her time trying to give back to her community. Maybe Chris had no idea who Harper was at all. He felt like such an ass for believing the worst of her.

“I’m almost scared to ask.” Harper gulped as her voice lowered her voice and braced herself for bad news. “How did you guys find out that I left him? I mean, how did you even know where to look for me?”

“Well, after I found out you gave your notice out of the blue and you didn’t answer my 10th text message, I knew that something big happened.” April sighed and tried to hide how worried she had been. “I tried calling Zac. Then Maddison. Then Tiffany. And when none of them would take my calls, I tried Ivy before I bit the bullet and called your dad.”

“Ivy knows!” Harper was devastated that her 16 year old sister knew more about her predicament than she had realized. 

“She’s a good kid and she loves you. You practically raised that girl.” April praised, having always liked Harper’s teenage sister the best, as well. “Ivy told me where I could find you and even texted me the address to this place. After that, it only took two rounds of drinks to convince everyone to come down here and hunt you down. Lauren found out about the fashion show and made it happen. It’s a great cover, I didn’t even have to use my miles.” 

“This is great. Well, I guess people were bound to find out eventually.” Harper groaned. “My dad figured that Italy was the best place for me and I was in no shape to argue with him. But I should have told you guys...I’m sorry, I’ve been hiding from everything since I got here, including my phone. God knows what's waiting for me on there.”

“Don’t apologize, Harper.” April insisted. “You’re looking after yourself for the first time in years and I’m glad that your dad finally got off his butt and helped. A break is exactly what you need to get over Zac and find yourself again. The hair is great, by the way.” 

“My hair?” Harper laughed as she ran her fingers through her semi wet hair, confused as to why April would bring up such a thing since Harper couldn’t remember the last time that she had even styled it.

“All wild, curly and sexy like.” April winked. “Exactly the way you used to wear it before Zac came along - minus the crazy colours. You look healthier, too. I haven’t seen you this laid back in a long time.”

“It’s all the pasta weighing me down.” Harper laughed and Chris tried his best to hide his own smile when he heard Harper cracking jokes. “Geez, and all these years I really thought I was getting away with something.” Harper huffed as she rested her head against April’s. “But you picked up on all of my marital bullshit, did you?”

“Not all of it.” April deeply sighed as she cuddled her friend closer. “I had no idea that asshole was cheating on you. I would have run him over with my car if I had known that he was pulling that kinda shit. You didn’t deserve that. You were always too good for him.”

Tears began to form in Harper’s eyes and Chris wasn’t sure how he resisted the urge to walk over and comfort her. Being cheated on was a helluva thing to deal with. Chris knew he should have asked Harper what precipitated her divorce. But asking would have inevitably led to her asking him personal questions about his own life. Questions that he had been avoiding like the plague and one of the main reasons he didn’t want to become her friend in the first place. But now, Chris wanted to know everything about her.

Before Harper could succumb to her tears, Elijah came running out of the house and did a perfectly placed cannonball that effectively soaked both Harper and April, but made Holly laugh hysterically when she padded outside hand in hand with her aunt ready for a swim. 

“I’m taking you shopping.” April announced after they were all done giggling at Elijah’s antics. “You don’t have to dress the way that Zac wants you to anymore. No more boring stuffy clothes with no personality. I’m gunna style you from head to toe. I want my old Harp back.”

“You don’t have to do that, April.” Harper insisted even though she really did need to buy more clothes at some point; having not packed nearly enough before she left Boston. 

“Hey.” Lauren piped as she waded into the water with her happy niece in her arms. “You’re in Italy, just a stone's throw away from the best shops in the world with your very own professional stylist.” Lauren gestured to her sister. “Live a little, Harper. Then you can come back home and work full time for me again and save me from having to entrust every issue to this genius.” Lauren teased as she splashed water in Elijah’s direction. 

Before Harper knew what was happening, her friends had convinced her to use her father’s credit card and have a driver take her and April into Florence for a day of shopping. It all happened so fast, the preparations had been made before Harper had even changed out of her swimsuit. 

Lauren and Elijah were going to stay behind with Holly and enjoy the villa with Viola and Chris, while April took Harper on a shopping spree. They’d probably miss dinner, but Viola promised to have her famous bruschetta and platters of antipasto ready so they could visit and enjoy the newly stocked wine in the cellar when they got back. Not exactly the way that Harper had planned on spending her day, but everyone seemed to be so excited for her and she didn’t want to let everyone down.

“Are you okay with this?” Harper found Chris before April dragged her out the door. “I'm leaving you with a full house. A full house of people that you don’t even know. I really had no idea they were coming here all the way from Boston. If you’re uncomfortable, maybe you could stay in town with Sebastian?”

“Go have fun, Harper.” Chris warmly smiled down at her. He found himself touched that, in the short time that they had known each other, Harper had already gotten to know him pretty well and realized that he didn’t like to share his space with strangers. But all in all, Harper’s friends seemed like good people.

“Yeah, but...I mean, Elijah can be a handful. He really needs adult supervision at all times.” Harper teased and laughed when she heard Elijah yell out, “Hey! I heard that.” from somewhere behind her.

“I have a younger brother.” Chris teased back with a playfully raised eyebrow. “Nothing I can’t handle. And Holly is pretty cute, she reminds me of my…” Chris looked away and cleared his throat when he started to think about home. “She reminds me of my...niece. I’ll hold down the fort, don’t worry.”

“But they’re also taking up all of the guest rooms...so…” Harper explained with a pained expression. They both knew that with all of the guest rooms full, if Chris decided to bring a woman home, he’d have nowhere to sneak off to so he could sleep by himself. 

“I’ll live.” Chris chuckled at how sorry she looked that he couldn’t get laid in the foreseeable future. How had he not noticed how adorable this woman could be when she let herself be happy. 

“April and I can share a bed with Holly.” Harper suggested. But that just made Chris shake his head and laugh harder at her. “You’re being so nice about this. Look, about before in the pool. What I did -” Harper started but Chris closed his eyes and refused to let her apologize again for slapping him. 

“Already forgotten.” Chris insisted. “But if you really wanna make it up to me, promise me one thing.”

“Anything.” Harper answered so quickly that it made Chris smile at her earnesty and willingness to want to make amends with him. If he wasn’t careful he was going to end up really falling hard for this girl.

“Go a little nuts, okay.” Chris advised with his deep voice dripping with warmth. “Don’t be shy with the credit card that Jonathan gave you. Start fresh and toss out all of the clothes that you came here with and get yourself some stuff that’s more you, okay. More like the real you.”

“You heard all of that out there?” Harper groaned, feeling embarrassed. April knew her better than anyone, and hearing in painstaking detail how much of herself she had changed to make her cheating husband happy was hard for her to hear. But Harper knew in her heart that April was right. April was always right and if Harper didn’t love her so much she’d find her track record annoying.

“I heard some of that.” Chris lied as he reached over and tucked a fallen lock of hair behind her ear and let the back of his fingers softly dance down her cheek. 

Chris knew that he was playing with fire but he just couldn’t help himself. April was right, he really did like Harper’s more carefree hair. The more he thought about it, Harper really had changed since the first night he met her. But her growth had been so subtle that Chris had hardly noticed it before. But now, as he gazed into Harper’s eyes, that’s all Chris could see. Her transformation had been so remarkable that Chris found himself a little choked up over it. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you and April come home with.” Chris smiled down as he considered the possibilities. “It’d be nice to be introduced to the real, Harper Dylan”

“It’ll be nice to meet her again, too.” Harper admitted as she looked up into his kind blue eyes and tried to smile, but found it impossible to do so. Accepting her father’s gifts was still impossible for Harper to do and she worried that, in the end, it would end up causing more harm than good. 

“What is it?”

“Here I go, spending my dad’s money...again.” Harper sadly sighed with a pitiful defeated shrug of her shoulders. “I know he thinks that things like stocking the wine cellar with expensive Italian wine and buying me a new designer wardrobe are going to make me feel better...but...it really doesn’t; it never has. It just makes me feel cheap. I’d rather he just...cared, you know? The things I want...the things I’ve always wanted, you just can’t put on your credit card.”

Little did Chris know, Harper was not only referring to her father's affection, but becoming a mother, as well. But as close as she suddenly felt to Chris, Harper wasn’t ready to share that part of herself with him. She had already confessed that she and Zac were trying to have a baby. There was no need trying to explain just how profound her longing had always been. 

But Chris could tell that Harper was wrestling with her decision to use Jonathan’s credit card and he resisted the urge to go into his own wallet and hand her his card to help appease her guilt. Talk about overstepping and diving head first into a situation that he promised himself he’d stay out of. Chris wondered when he was going to start making smart decisions again, but something had happened in that pool that had changed the way that he felt about Harper, and he just couldn’t seem to shake it. 

“Look,” Chris pulled her off to the side with a hushed voice. “I don’t know what the deal is with you and Jonathan, but I really don’t think that he would’ve sent you all the way here if he didn’t want you to be happy. Sometimes, when you have a lot of money, spending it is easier than...it’s easier than having to really feel shit sometimes. But this place is really special to him and he wouldn’t have shared it with you if you didn’t mean a lot to him.”

“Did he...did he send you here, too?”

This was the closest thing to a personal question that Harper had asked him in the time that they had known each other, and Chris really didn’t want to lie to her. Chris never thought he would see the day when he would consider Harper Dylan as someone special to him; but here he was. 

“Yes. He did.” Chris solemnly admitted and braced himself for a flood of follow up questions that he wasn’t sure he was ready to answer yet.

Harper looked up into Chris’s eyes as she let his confession sink in. If Chris was right and her father only sent people that he really cared about to his villa. If she followed that logic, then Chris must mean more to her father than Harper had been aware of. A lot more.

Harper’s first impression of Chris must have been right. He had to be more than just some average handyman that her father had hired to keep his empty villa running smoothly. She really didn’t know what to make of this new information. 

“So...my father...he must care about you, then?” Harper softly asked with her voice sound small. 

Chris slowly nodded his head and hated the way that Harper blanched at his admission.

It wasn’t that Harper didn’t think that Chris wasn’t worthy of her father’s affection, it was that she found herself bitterly jealous that she’d never been worthy of that affection herself. It was a lot to take in and Harper felt guilty for the way she was feeling because Chris was looking down at her like a sad puppy again. The last thing Harper wanted to do was to take her fucked up issues out on him again like she had in the pool. She was a grown up for Christ sake, she had to start acting like it.

“He’s been there for me through some of the worst times in my life.” Chris confessed when Harper looked as though she were trying to toughen herself up and he was surprised by how badly he wanted to protect her. “I don’t say that to hurt you, it’s just the truth. In a lot of ways, he’s been like a second father to me; especially after my parents divorce. He taught me everything that I know, I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t for your father. So yeah, he wouldn’t have sent either of us here if he didn’t give a shit about us.”

Chris watched as Harper’s mind tried to make sense of his confession, but before he could clarify and explain further, their car had shown up. Soon April was saying goodbye to her daughter and pulling Harper away from him; causing him to miss his chance. Or maybe their sudden exit had saved from making a terrible mistake, he wasn’t quite sure. Because Chris had been seconds away from spilling his guts to Harper. He hadn’t been lying to Lucy when he’d told her that Harper was easy to talk to, Chris hadn’t considered just how easy.

“What was that all about?” April asked as soon as she and Harper were alone in the car. She’d noticed Chris and Harper eye fucking each other since she had shown up. But once she saw the two of them huddled up together looking grave and serious, April felt as though she needed to step in and save her friend for some reason.

“He’s not just a handyman.” Was all Harper could say once they were driving away from the villa. If Harper was shocked to find out that Chris wasn’t just one of Jonathan Dylan’s random employees, then nothing could have prepared her for finding out exactly who Chris Evans was.

“Uhhh, no, of course he isn’t.” April laughed. “That’s Chris mother fucking Evans. He’s one of the reasons why your dad owns most of the east coast. Wait? You didn’t know that he’s your dad’s prodigy? You haven’t met him before or read all of the glowing articles about Chris Evans being the son that the great Jonathan Dylan never had?” April exclaimed when she saw all of the colour drain from Harper’s face. “They’re like a powerhouse team or something.”

“Stop fucking with me. That can’t be true. Are you for real?” Harper countered as she chewed on her bottom lip and tried to process the fact that everything that she once thought was true probably was a lie. 

“He’s worked for him for forever, but they’ve run Dylan Industries together for maybe 4 years now. I think I read somewhere that your dad’s been grooming him to take over the whole thing one day.” April affirmed with a loud amused laugh. “How do I know this, and you don’t?”

“You know that I work extra hard not to pay attention to all that shit.” Harper grumbled as she slumped into her seat and pouted. The truth was, her father didn’t really share any of his life with her so she had no idea. “Before you guys got here, I slapped him.”

“Who?”

“Chris. I slapped Chris across the face really hard.”

“You DID?” April squeaked. Shocked that her best friend had it in her. Kickboxing like a pro was one thing, but actually hitting another person outside the ring was something else entirely. “Wow, slugger. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I almost kissed him, too.” Harper confessed matter of factly, as if kissing random men was something that she did regularly. 

“In that order?” April dryly asked with a cute scrunched up face.

“Yup.” Harper admitted, popping the P at the end. “I’ve been the beacon of mental health lately. So, lemme get this straight. Chris doesn’t just work for my dad, he like, works with my dad? Like side by side.” 

“Pretty much. In the business world the dude is uber famous. I didn’t recognize him at first though with the long hair and the huge beard. From the newspapers and magazines he’s been in, he’s usually a lot more groomed.” April explained as their car got further and further away from the villa. “Here, let’s see who you slapped.” April giggled as she pulled out her phone and Googled him. “Apparently, according to his Wiki, Chris Evans was a quiz kid and got really lucky in the venture capital game early on. ‘With Jonathan Dylan’s careful tutelage, Mr. Evans became a millionaire by the time he was 20.’” April read on as Harper stared out the window. 

This news had Harper recalling all of the times that Chris was on his phone seemingly giving orders to people. He sounded so in charge and Harper felt stupid for believing that he was just dealing with the cottage remodel and not ruling the world. She never even found it odd that he always reached for the business section of the newspaper when he was done reading the sports in the morning. The signs were all there, but Harper had been so wrapped up in her own shit that she had missed all of them. 

“Sounds like the kinda son my father would’ve loved to have.” Harper sarcastically sang out as she started to chew on her nails. April was very familiar with all of Harper’s bad habits and swatted her friend’s fingers out of her mouth without looking up from her phone. 

“Oh, and he’s been in all of those stupid lists.” April marvelled and ignored the dirty childish looks coming from Harper. “Like all of them. You know all those ‘Ones to Watch’ lists and ‘The top 30 under 30.’”

“I’m scared to ask, did the golden boy peak at 30?” Harper asked, only half joking.

“Ahhh, lets see…” April hummed as she scrolled her phone. “Nope! After he turned 30, he moved to the ‘Top 40 under 40.’ It says here that he has the midas touch and that anything that he’s investing in is as good as gold.”

“Whatever.” Harper huffed. “Just a bunch of rich people patting themselves on the back.” 

But in the back of her head, Harper couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything about Chris that had screamed wealth to her and she came up with nothing. Chris’s clothes, when he was wearing them, were modest and he didn’t seem attached to a lot of material things. In fact, for the most part his clothes seemed like hand me downs, not the Gucci suits that he probably wore in Boston while he was on the job with her father. 

Who knows, maybe underneath the business suit, Chris had a couple of eccentric tendencies like her father did? Not dressing like a millionaire during his off hours was kinda cool in Harper’s eyes, but she refused to be charitable and instead continued to pout.

“He’s also won just about every boring business award you can think of.” April continued to read from her phone. “It says that there’s a wing of the Boston Museum named after him, too. That’s kinda cool. I think I read somewhere that he did something at Boston General Hospital recently too, but I can’t remember what. Not to mention, because he’s so hot and successful he was named the most eligible bachelor in Boston pretty much every year until he got married a little while back.”

“Married! Chris is married?” Harper choked on her words and thought that she was going to be sick. All of Chris’s impressive accomplishments meant nothing to Harper when she considered that he had hid the fact that he had a wife from her. 

“Former model turned successful boutique owner. Perfect mix of beauty and brains, apparently.” April read until she found a picture of Chris’s wife and gasped. “Wow, she’s gorgeous! … Adele Evans. She’s perfect. I hate her.” April muttered with a giggle.

Harper sat in her seat and blinked in disbelief. All she could think of was Chris holding her in the pool and how safe and alive he made her feel. She hadn’t felt that way in so long that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be connected to another person like that. But now, all of those emotions were being replaced by a deep feeling of betrayal. She felt so stuipid, especially after everything that she had just been through with her estranged husband.

“It says here that Chris was gearing up to become the face of Dylan Industries, until...oh no, until he-”

“Stop!” Harper cut April off so sharply that she made her friend jump in her seat and their driver checked his rearview mirror. Harper was livid and couldn’t listen to another word. “Stop reading, April, I mean it. There’s a reason that I ignored all of this shit for years. I don’t want to hear anymore about how perfect Chris Evans is. It just makes me wish that I had slapped his perfect face even harder. He’s so important to my dad, huh? So important that my dad never once introduced me to him after all these years. Stop reading, or I won’t let you buy me anything today.”

Harper was mortified that she had been seconds away from being seduced by a married man. Let alone a married man that her father treated better than his own daughter.

But more than that, Harper hadn’t forgotten about the parade of women that had left Chris’s room since she came to Italy. All of which Chris had slept with while his poor perfect wife was out there somewhere nonthewiser...just like Harper had been when Zac was running around fucking Maddison and god knows who else behind her back. In the grand scheme of things, how was Chris any different than Zac? 

Even before April had pointed it out to her, Harper had already been ashamed of the woman that she’d become. Sure, Zac probably had a lot to do with how weak and needy she had become. But at the end of the day, her downward transformation was on her. She had to take responsibility for her choices and become a person that she could be proud of again.

But as she sat there seething in her rental car, Harper decided history wasn’t going to repeat itself. Catching feelings for another cheating philandering asshole wasn’t an option.


	8. Drinking Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harper assumes that she’s learned the truth about Chris. But in reality, she’s barely scrapped the surface.

It was nearly 10 o’clock at night before Harper and April made it back to the villa from Florence. Strangely enough, Harper found herself coming home in a much better mood than she had left. Maybe it was spending the day in a beautiful city with her best friend, or maybe it was all of the champagne that April kept feeding her throughout the day while they shopped. Either way, when Harper struggled to bring all of her shopping bags in the house, the last thing that she was looking for was another fight with Chris.

“Lauren must have put Holly to bed already.” April surmised when the villa felt especially quiet and no dogs came to greet them at the door.

“What about everyone else?” Harper asked, but no sooner had the words passed her lips did they hear muffled cheering and laughter coming from the backyard.

The girls both abandoned Harper’s new wardrobe in the foyer and set out to see how Lauren and Elijah were holding up after they had decided to leave them for the day. But as they made their way out to the well lit backyard, the laughter became louder and both women realized that there was no need to worry about them at all.

From what Harper could gather, as she kissed the top of Lauren’s head and took the patio chair next to her, was that they had just walked into the middle of a heated swimming competition between Chris, Elijah, and Sebastian.

“Hey, guys. Elijah’s getting his butt kicked. And I love it!” Lauren wickedly laughed at their friend who was barely keeping up with Chris’s very impressive breast stroke with Seb coming in a close second.

“How long have they been racing?” April giggled as she handed Harper a glass of wine from out of nowhere.

Harper didn’t ask any questions and cheersed Isabella before she took a sip of her wine, kicked off the shoes, and sunk into the patio chair’s comfy cushions. She wondered how long she could stay under the radar before Chris noticed that she was home and they would have to inevitably finish the intense conversation they were having before she left for the day. All day Harper had compartmentalized her feelings for him and convinced herself that the Chris she knew before was a lie. But now, as she watched him swim with the guys, he was still the same Chris to her that he had always been. Except now that Harper knew the truth, she had to battle with all of the fresh feelings that she had developed for him.

“Hours!” Isabella exclaimed as she beamed at Seb with all the love in the world in her eyes.

Penny, Louis, and Coco had all been dutifully watching Chris in the pool but once they noticed that Harper was home, they all made their way over to her to say hello while Harper drank her wine and hid in plain sight.

“Elijah keeps changing the rules.” Lauren explained. “He’s trying to find a stroke that Chris and Seb can’t beat him with…that sounded dirty. Nevermind. I think he’s just trying to tire them out, but Chris is a machine.”

“My Sebby nearly caught up to him a few times.” Isabella defended her man, her voice dripping with loving pride. “Don’t count him out.”

Chris was actually a really good swimmer, Harper thought to herself as she watched him win by a very healthy margin. She could now add being a strong swimmer to the ever growing list of things that she didn’t know about Chris Evans. Harper couldn’t help but wonder how often Chris had swam with his wife… or the many women that he had cheated on her with since he’d come to Italy pretending to be a handyman.

“Hi.” Chris sputtered when he looked up and saw that Harper was home and pushed his long wet hair off his face.

“Hi.” Harper nodded, her voice not sounding like her own.

Chris noticed her tone and gave her his bright Chris Evans smile, and Harper found herself blushing and smiling back at him in the pool. He knew exactly how charming he was and Harper couldn’t help but puff out a laugh at their situation.

“Rematch!” Elijah pouted when he realized that he had lost again and punched the water.

“Stop before you drown, Elijah.” Harper teased as she took another long slip of her wine. She could feel the warm effects of the alcohol flow through her veins but had no intention of slowing down. It felt way too good to drink and let off some steam. Maybe her father stocking up the wine cellar for her was a good idea, after all.

“Now that’s a woman that I’d like to race.” Chris boasted from the pool. “Harper would kick my ass seven days from Sunday.”

“No way!” Sebastian smiled. “You swim, Harper?”

“Every single morning like clockwork.” Chris informed his friend. “She’d put us both to shame. Always bet on, Dylan, trust me.”

Both Elijah and Seb could see the way that Chris looked at Harper; a mixture of flirtation and admiration with a hint of longing. It was refreshing to see something else behind his usual sad eyes.

Elijah raised an eyebrow at Harper to let her know that she hadn’t been fooling anyone by claiming that there was nothing going on between her and Chris. He could see their attraction clear as day, even though she steadfastly denied it.

Instead of trying to set Elijah straight, Harper quickly polished off her glass of wine and asked Isabella to hand her the bottle so she could refill her glass.

“How did Holly go down?” April asked her sister with a yawn.

“Like a trooper.” Elijah called out as he crawled out of the pool and grabbed a towel. “But apparently, Uncle Elijah isn’t the Monster Detective anymore. I’ve been replaced.”

“Oh?” April giggled at how comically upset Elijah pretended to be.

“Yup.” Lauren laughed at how cute her niece Holly could be, especially during her bedtime routines. “Chris here had to do the monster checks tonight. Holly insisted.”

“Awww, thanks, Chris.” April smiled as Chris blushed and gestured to her to let her know that it wasn’t a problem. “She has had a thing about monsters ever since Monsters Inc. She’s really hoping to meet one someday.”

“She’s great.” Chris smiled his famously charming smile as he jumped out of the pool and gave Harper a great view of his chiseled physique.

If Harper didn’t know any better, she’d think that ever since she slapped him earlier that day, Chris had been more relaxed then she’d ever seen him before. After her embarrassing outburst, Harper expected him to barely tolerate her friends, not socialize and swim with them and help put Holly to bed. Maybe there was a lot more to him than she had originally assumed.

Even though she was upset with Chris for not telling her about his wife or his relationship with her father, Harper was quickly finding that it was hard to stay mad at Chris Evans when he was being so charming. Or maybe the wine was kicking in? Harper wasn’t quite sure, but she wished that he would put a shirt on because it was hard to think straight when Chris was half naked.

“Say, can you leave Holly with me when you guys go into Rome for the fashion show?” Harper asked from behind her wine glass as she tried not to drool over the dripping wet hot and very married man standing in front of her. “I’m sure she’ll have more fun here than tagging along with you guys.”

“That would be awesome.” April yawned again. “She’s been missing you all month. But I should hit the hay, though, I’m getting old and can feel my jetlag kicking in.”

“Me too.” Lauren finished off her wine and stretched her arms up high. “Thanks for the show boys. Sweet dreams.”

“We should be heading back into town, too, Sebastian, my love.” Isabella sweetly smiled. “I’ll drive, if you’re too tired.”

“Ouch.” Sebastian laughed as he pulled his girlfriend against him and rubbed his nose against hers. “I didn’t get beat that badly, did I?”

“Are we still good tomorrow?” Isabella giggled as she playfully ignored Sebastian.

“Tomorrow?” Harper asked. Her friends had just dropped in out of the blue and she felt a little bad that she didn’t have anything fun planned for them to do.

“Sebastian and Isabella want to take us out on the boat.” Lauren informed her. “You in?”

“Of course. Sounds fun.” Harper smiled as she said goodnight to everyone.

It wasn’t long before Elijah followed the Ferguson sisters upstairs to bed, and Harper and Chris both said their goodbyes to Seb and Isabella.

Harper and Chris were officially left alone together and Harper wasn’t sure where to look. Like always, Chris’s body was distracting and Harper refused to let herself be attracted to a married man, no matter how hot and charming he might be.

“So.” Chris started as he took a seat next to her, making no move to put a shirt on and poured himself a glass of wine. “Looks like you took my advice and went all out.”

“Huh?”

“Your dad got a call from the credit card company. Suspicious activity. ” Chris explained with laughter in his voice. “I told him you were being forced to treat yourself against your will.”

“He called you?” Harper blurted out. But of course her father would call Chris. Chris was his beloved prodigy after all. But Harper couldn’t help but wonder if she had been unknowingly living with a spy all month. “Do you tell him about me? How often do you report back to him? Weekly? Daily?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Chris stopped her when he sensed that she was about to spin out of control with her accusations. “I don’t tell your father a damn thing about you.”

“Out of principal, or because he never asks?”

“I can’t really win, can I?” Chris sighed as he looked up to the stars and tried to figure out how to make things right with her again. This stuff between her and Jonathon seemed impossible for him to fix. “So, is this the real Harper that I’ve been waiting so long to meet?”

Harper looked down at her new outfit and let out a small laugh. It felt nice to wear normal casual clothes again.

“I guess the real me likes distressed denim, oversized t shirts and flower print dresses. I guess before I let my husband dress me, I remember at one point being part hippy, part rocker chick, with a splash of fluffy girliness thrown in to confuse people.” Harper laughed at herself as she surveyed the new outfit that April had put together for her. “And apparently I used to live for accessories, too.” Harper giggled as she jingled the new bracelet stack that she had bought that day in Florence. “It’s nice to dress for me and not feel like I’m going on a job interview every single day. After we put a serious dent in my dad’s card, we spent most of our time in these really cool charity second hand shops trying to haggle in Italian; it was fun.”

“I like it.” Chris nodded as he basked in Harper’s newfound happiness. Harper had this authenticness to her that he had never really noticed before and he liked it more than he’d ever admit out loud. “I really like it. It suits you. When you first moved in I thought you were a teacher or a republican or something.”

“Great.” Harper groaned with an exaggerated sigh. “No wonder my husband cheated on me.”

“Don’t say that…”

“Sorry. Too personal.” Harper backpedalled when she could sense that she had overshared and made herself sound more pathetic than she actually felt at the moment. “We don’t really do personal. Do we?”

“We can do personal…how personal do you wanna get?” Chris asked with a playfully challenging tone.

“I dunno.” Harper sighed, not expecting Chris to rise to the occasion. “Maybe you can help me out. Men and women…how can we be so utterly and completely different?”

“How do you mean?” Chris chuckled, amused with her response. “I mean, other than the obvious?”

“I mean sex.” Harper blurted out and made Chris choke on his wine. “How can we view sex so differently. April showed me some of the texts that Zac has been sending her because I won’t answer my phone…it’s like we’re strangers. I can’t believe that we have such different takes on things..”

“You haven’t spoken to him since you left Boston?”

“No.” Harper shook her head as she sipped her wine. “The morning after I got here I shoved my phone in my nightstand and I haven’t looked at it since. Viola got me a temporary one to use while I’m here and I barely use it. I don’t know…not hearing from him…it just helps me think clearer, you know? I used to hear his voice in my head before I made any kind of decision, and that voice is getting quieter and quieter lately… and I kinda like it.”

“Well, what did the cheating prick have to say about sex?” Chris asked with a bitter scoff. “This should be rich.”

“He…so stupid…” Harper hissed as she shook her head in disgust. “Zac’s convinced that sex doesn’t mean anything. That sex equates to a fucking handshake and I shouldn’t throw away our marriage over something that doesn’t really matter. I had no idea how good at gaslighting he was until I got some distance. He’s trying to make this whole thing my fault for overreacting. He actually had the nerve to say that he was disappointed in me.”

“Sex matters.” Chris stated, more to himself than to Harper.

“Oh, really?” Harper snorted with amusement. “Well that’s rich coming from you. How many women have slept with since I’ve known you?”

“Sex matters when you love someone.” Chris defended himself with an edge in his voice. “It matters a lot when you make promises and vows. I’ve never claimed to love a single woman that you’ve met coming out of my room in the morning. I never promised them anything more than one night. But even then…I know that it’s more than a fucking handshake…”

“I see.” Harper whispered as she started to understand Chris a little bit better. She appreciated that he lived by a code, but that didn’t explain the mysterious wife of his back in Boston.

“Your husband didn’t love you.” Chris informed her as he looked out onto the pool. “…not like he should have.”

“What the fuck do you know about my marriage?” Harper snapped at him. Chris had touched a nerve, but Harper knew that he was right. Maybe that’s what pissed her off the most.

“I overstepped.” Chris conceded as he shook his head with a pained expression. “I just know a little bit about infidelity…”

I’m sure you do, Harper wanted to scream at him and defend the wife that he had been cheating on for months.

“Look,” Chris started when he could sense Harper tensing up. “I know that I should have been more upfront and honest with you about my various job titles…”

“Among other things…” Harper mumbled under her breath. “I really don’t know anything about you.” Harper shrugged.

“Well, whaddya wanna know?” Chris sang out, hoping to lighten the mood.

“Whatever you want to tell me. But to tell you the truth, I just wanna get drunk tonight, Chris.” Harper giggled in defeat. “I don’t wanna fight with you, but if we’re gunna do this I want to be nice and liquored up first.”

“That’s the best idea you’ve had since I met you, Dylan.” Chris chuckled as he rubbed his hands together like a little kid facing a mischievous challenge. “Let’s kill two birds with one stone.”

—————-

Soon Harper and Chris were sitting at the kitchen island, trying to stifle Harper’s drunken laughter. All of the champagne and wine that Harper had already drank during the day was doing the trick, and she found everything funny. Including the old plaid flannel shirt that Chris decided to put on to finally cover himself up. If she didn’t stop laughing at him she was sure to wake up the whole house.

Normally, Harper wouldn’t have thought anything of it since she’s seen him wear it many times. But knowing now that he ran a fortune five hundred company, she suddenly found his modest wardrobe hilarious for some reason.

“Shhh.” Chris demanded with a wolfish grin as they both covered her mouth with all four of their hands. “Everyone’s sleeping. How drunk do you wanna get? Are you down for a drinking game, maybe?”

“Yes!” Harper hissed as Chris placed two shot glasses on the table and pulled out a half finished bottle of tequila from the cupboard. “Don’t hold the knife like that, you’ll cut yourself.” Harper warned with a giggle as Chris began to slice up one of the many lemons that were always laying around the kitchen thanks to the villa’s orchard.

“Look, I know I can’t cook like you can, but I can at least cut a fuckin’ lemon, Dylan.” Chris huffed at her nagging. “You sound like my ma.”

For some reason their familiar bickering made Harper smile. It was as if nothing had changed between them and she didn’t hate that feeling. Squabbling with Chris felt normal; fun even. They were both stubborn and competitive, and never told each other whatever they wanted to hear. In another time and place the two of them would have become fast friends. But thanks to their first impressions of one another, that hadn’t happened. But after living together for a month, and April’s Google search, Harper was ready to bite the bullet and learn more about him.

Harper watched Chris slice up their lemons and couldn’t believe that he was the kind of man that cheated on his wife as if it were a hobby of some kind. Something didn’t fit.

“Okay, I’ll start.” Chris announced as he poured them both a shot. “I’ll ask you a question, and if you don’t want to answer it, you drink.”

“Okay.” Harper nodded as she rolled her shoulders and started stretching as if she were training for an important sporting match. “Shoot.”

“What did you want to be when you were a little girl?” Chris asked as he smirked at her cuteness.

“Meeee? Gosh, I dunno.” Harper sighed as she played with her shot glass. For some reason she was expecting a heavier question so Chris’s desire to learn something so innocent about her had caught her off guard.

“There’s gotta be something…did you always want to be a graphic designer?”

“A painter.” Harper breathed out her words when she sensed that he really wanted an honest answer.

“A painter? Really?” Chris smiled, not expecting her to have had such artistic ambitions. “Sorry, I just don’t picture you as the type.” Chris explained after she scrunched up her face in a silly way, offended by his reaction.

“Well, you got me there. I guess I’m not the type or I’d still be painting now, wouldn’t I.” Harper dryly mocked. “Painting isn’t all that reliable a job. But I tried my hand at it for a while after I graduated college. I illustrated a few children’s books and they did pretty well.”

“For real? That’s great.” Chris puffed out an impressed laugh. Harper Dylan was full of surprises. “Wait, why did you stop?”

“Well, even if you’re amazing, it’s almost impossible to pay the bills.” Harper sadly explained. “I haven’t held a paintbrush in years. April was just giving me a hard time about it today, actually. Fun fact, the last thing I painted was the mural in Holly’s nursery. She still loves it.”

“I don’t mean to be rude.” Chris carefully qualified first, being well aware of Harper’s temper where her siblings were concerned. “But I’ve met Maddison and Tiffany before, they never struck me as the type that worry about paying the bills…”

“Well, they cash in their allowance.” Harper bitterly explained with a sour taste in her mouth, not wanting to think about Maddison. “Don’t get me wrong, I like Chanel, and Birkin bags, too. I’m not a saint, but I stopped taking money from my dad when I was 22 years old.”

“I didn’t know, sorry.” Chris apologized with his voice rich with warm understanding. “I mean I kinda figured when you didn’t want to use his credit card. Why did you stop? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I already answered one, now it’s my turn.” Harper smirked and giggled when Chris accepted his fate with a lighthearted laugh. “What do you do for my dad?” Harper started to ask and tried to understand the dark look that crossed Chris’s face. “I mean, April googled you in the car today, so she read me your career highlights. Kudos by the way. But why would you go from all that, to fixing a guest house in Italy? You don’t really strike me as the caretaking kinda type.”

“That bad, huh?” Chris tried to joke his way out of answering. “This place isn’t falling apart that badly, is it?”

Harper just looked at him expectantly and waited to see if he was going to answer or blow her off. But in the end, Chris ended up surprising her.

“I probably should have said something, but I’ve worked for Jonathon Dylan for, oh maybe close to 20 years now.”

“20 years! How old are you?” Harper impulsively asked a follow up question like a hyper child and broke the rules. Chris gave her a playfully pointed look that let her know that she’d been caught. But in the end, he let it slide. Happy drunk Harper was surprisingly a lot of fun.

“38.” Chris chuckled at how big and blue Harper’s eyes got when something shocked her. “I started working for him right out of high school. Back then, I had this crazy idea in my head that I was going to be an actor.”

“An actor, really?” Harper giggled at the thought. Chris definitely had the looks and charm to make it far in Hollywood, but other than today, he’d been so guarded. It was hard for Harper to see him as a thespian openly conveying emotions and letting himself be vulnerable on stage.

“Yeah, I did all kinds of plays as a kid. I even did some commercial work, too.” Chris shyly smiled and was surprised at how easy it was to open up to Harper and be himself. “It was a lot of fun. My brother Scott is actually a working actor in LA and my mom still runs our local theatre company in Boston. So I grew up surrounded by it. Fun fact, I even know how to tap dance.” Chris added with a charming twitch of his eyebrow.

“You’re full of surprises.” Harper marvelled as she shook her head in disbelief. “So how did you go from a tap dancing theatre kid to working for Dylan Industries?”

“Well, I had sent out my resume to every single casting agent in Los Angeles and New York and heard nothing back from any of them.” Chris explained as he licked some salt off the back of his hand and took his shot for no reason while Harper handed him a lemon wedge to chase it with. “I was about to give up and go to college when I got an offer from one.”

“A role?”

“No, an unpaid internship.” Chris shivered from the tequila and the lemon. “Not the greatest gig. But I was young and hungry and about to jump at it and take my chances. But on the day that I was set to leave for New York, I met your dad and I ended up taking another path.”

“Interesting…” Harper hummed as Chris filled up his shot glass. “But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

“I’m working up to it.” Chris explained in a professional tone that Harper had never heard him use before, but gave her some insight into what he must be like on the clock. Intimidating, capable and 100% in charge. “But before I took some time off and came here, I sat on the board and I was being groomed to become your father’s vice president. Boring stuff, really.”

“His right hand. He must really believe in you.” Harper whispered as she tried like hell not to let her jealousy show through.

“He does.” Chris whispered back. He hated how hearing the truth caused Harper to flinch for a split second. She quickly did her shot without any salt or lemon chaser. Probably in the hopes that she could either hide her feelings from him, or dull the pain of his confession.

Hurting her had never been his intention. There was no way that Chris was going to add insult to injury and tell her how many times Jonathan had confessed to him that he had always been like a son to him. Chris was starting to discover that hurting Harper in any way, even for a second, was simply unacceptable to him.

“So why are you here then?” Harper blurted out as the tequila burned down her throat and heated her belly. The alcohol making her brave. “You have such a big important job waiting for you. Why have you been in Italy for half a year and not in your big fancy corner office ruling the world?”

“You already got your answer.” Chris reminded her as he took a sip from his shot glass even though he didn’t have to. Chris had already decided that he was going to tell her everything, he just needed to work up to it and the tequila was helping. He was thankful that Harper was drunk enough to let him change the subject without fighting him too hard. “My turn. What happened when you were 22? Why did you stop cashing in your allowance? You could be painting up a storm right now without a care in the world.”

“I got in a car accident.” Harper simply stated, as if that answered his question. Chris leaned forward and listened intently but Harper nervously looked around the room and chewed on her bottom lip without elaborating.

“A car accident? That’s it?” Chris smiled a fake smile to hide his disappointment as he shook his head. “So much for us getting to know each other. Do your shot then.”

Harper took a deep breath and quickly did the shot of liquor and wiped her mouth with her hand as the liquid burned down her throat again. Even though she had taken the shot, she decided to suck it up and answer Chris’s question anyway. She just hoped that she didn’t start bawling like a baby because the truth was, all in all, she wasn’t having a terrible time with him and didn’t want to ruin their evening.

“It was late. I was driving. It was snowing.” Harper set the scene in a robotic way in order to keep her voice steady and emotionless. “We hit some ice and slid off the road and straight into an oak tree. My boyfriend was riding shotgun and he…his name was Danny…and he didn’t make it.”

“Holy shit.” Chris groaned with a pained expression, not expecting such a painful answer. “I’m so sorry…I didn’t…I really didn’t know, Harper. I’m sorry I pressed you. You don’t have to talk about it…”

“It’s okay. I was pretty banged up. I was in the hospital for about a week.” Harper explained as she poured herself another shot. “April was there day and night; she slept in a chair and only left my side to use the restroom. She even had her food delivered, the poor thing.”

“She sounds like a great friend.”

“She is.” Harper nodded and hoped that she wasn’t slurring her words too badly. “Everyone should have an April Ferguson on their team.”

“To April.” Chris smiled as he held up his shot glass as Harper did the same.

“To April.” Harper toasted Chris’s shot glass before she downed her tequila like a pro. “But the kicker was, my dear old dad never showed his face once.” Harper bitterly explained as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “His secretary sent a note and some really pretty flowers, though. Carol has always been really great to me.”

“Carol is great.” Chris smiled as he played with his shot glass. “She really could run the whole operation.”

“She’s always tried to be a buffer between me and my dad. In fact, when I was in the hospital, she stopped by after work a few times to see if I needed anything. But my father was closing a deal. I think he was buying a railroad or something like a real life game of Monopoly.”

“The Morrison deal.” Chris confirmed as he hung on her every word and remembered what a stressful time that had been. “I don’t think that I left the office for a whole month trying to close that one. Jonathan was there day and night. I had no idea that one of his kids was hurt and in the hospital.”

“Well, I was.” Harper shrugged as she let out a fake laugh to hide her pain. “Whiplash, a mild concussion, and a broken ankle…not to mention a dead boyfriend.”

“I’m so, so sorry.” Chris whispered with genuine sympathy. Harper was trying to sound very matter of fact about everything but she couldn’t hide the pain in her eyes. She was breaking his heart and he wished that he could go back in time and be there for her during that time; deal or no deal.

The Morrison deal was important, but he’d like to think that he would have made time to check up on someone he loved if they were going through something like that. But in all honesty, Chris had a feeling that he was lying to himself and it scared him to think of how obsessed he could be about work.

“It’s okay. It took a lot of therapy to stop believing that I had killed him.” Harper tried to smile in an attempt to put Chris at ease and downplay her oversharing, but Chris’s kind blue eyes made her comfortable and urged her to continue baring her soul. “But when I got out of the hospital there was this giant wad of cash sitting in my account; ten times what he usually put in for my monthly expenses…and it hit me.”

Harper knew that her voice was breaking into a vulnerable whine but she couldn’t stop herself from reliving her painful memories. “It hit me that he really thought that the money would make everything he did… or more importantly everything he didn’t do, okay. He didn’t have to visit me in the hospital or hold my hand during Danny’s funeral. All he had to do was sign a cheque and that would make up for him not caring about me. For him not being my dad. Well,…after that…I decided that I wasn’t for sale anymore.”

“Did it work?” Chris quietly asked even though he had a sinking feeling that it hadn’t worked judging by the fact that he hadn’t heard much from Jonathan about Harper in the 20 odd years that Chris had known him. Jonathan took stubbornness to new heights sometimes and it had always been a quality that Chris had admired about him under different circumstances.

Chris was so disappointed in his mentor that he quickly downed his shot and poured himself another one and drank that one, too. Chris hoped that the tequila might mask some of the shame he was starting to feel. He really cared about Jonathon, but Chris was starting to wonder if his own problems might have developed by trying to emulate Harper’s father for all these years.

“Not really.” Harper shrugged. “It’s still a coin toss as to whether or not he’ll take my calls. But it means something to me that I’m not reliant on him…well, that I wasn’t reliant on him. I’m sure he’s really loving this right now. Me - here in his house, drinking his booze and going on shopping sprees on his dime. Zac hated it, by the way.” Harper puffed out a laugh at how absurd her ex husband had been when it came to her father’s money. “He was furious with me when he found out that I had all this money that I was ignoring. Especially when he was trying to finance some new venture. He never let it go.”

“For real? He couldn’t see how important it was to you?” Chris angrily spat out, more as a statement than a question.

“Well, as it turned out, I married a dickhead.” Harper sang out in a silly way that made Chris puff out a loud laugh. “Trust me, no one was more surprised than I was.”

Chris was touched by Harper’s openness and admired her bravery. So much so that he decided that it was time to match her openness with some of his own.

“I met my wife Adele when I was 32.” Chris started to explain, the serious tone of his voice making Harper sit up straighter and brace herself for what he was about to confess. In so many ways the two of them already knew each other so well, but in other ways they were strangers. But Harper had a feeling that all of that was about to change “I never thought that I would get married. But we were together for less than a year before we eloped. A classic love story. Love at first sight, yadda yadda and all that bullshit.” Chris’s serious tone turned playful and Harper let out a laugh that made Chris smile and enjoy the moment. When Harper was happy, Chris couldn’t help but feel something healing inside him and it was more intoxicating than any top shelf liquor.

“Sorry, continue,” Harper tried to stifle her giggles.

“Well, my big Italian family loved her and, at the time, she was easily the most beautiful woman that I had ever laid eyes on. I was madly in love with her and I was on top of the world. I had everything. A job that I lived for and a wife that I couldn’t wait to get home-….that’s a lie.” Chris stopped as he shook his head and laughed at himself for trying to sugar coat things.

“Which part?” Harper playfully called him out. “You’re not really a serial killer, are you?”

“I guess the cat’s out of the bag now!” Chris teased back. But soon his laughter trailed off and he swallowed hard as he looked in Harper’s kind eyes.

Harper liked drunk Chris, she liked him a lot. But Harper wasn’t sure what had come over her when she reached across the kitchen island and took Chris’s hand when it appeared as though he had retreated into his dark memories. Seeing him upset like that pulled on her heart in such an intense way that she couldn’t help herself. She knew that should be smacking him again, not comforting him. But the way that he spoke about meeting his wife made her sad knowing the number of women that had come out of Chris’s bedroom. Obviously he and Adele never had a happily ever after.

“I loved her…I really did. I worked extra hard to give her everything that she ever wanted. Built us a home and helped her start her business. Every man envied me when she was on my arm. But it’s a lie that I couldn’t wait to get home to her every night.” Chris admitted as he took his shot with his other hand and poured them both another one.

The rules of their drinking game were pointless at this point. They were just two friends talking and sharing secrets that they should have divulged to each other a long time ago.

“I was moving up the ladder and closing important deals for Jonathan and getting more and more responsibility and to say I loved my work, would’ve been an understatement. You see, a lot of men in my position get their high from some very expensive pharmaceuticals. But me? I loved the high I got from my work…so much so that…that I almost missed the birth of my daughter.” Chris bitterly added with his eyes full of shame.

“You have a daughter?” Harper lit up and smiled a giant dorky toothy smile at the mere thought of a child that she had no idea existed two minutes ago. “What’s her name?”

“Chloe.” Chris sniffed. “Man, I really miss her. She’s a wonderful kid, she really is. But, you see, it took about a year for me to find out…it took a year for me to find out…” Chris took a deep breath and tried to control his breathing because he always hated having to say the words out loud. He always sounded weak when he spoke about Chloe, but he wanted Harper to finally know the truth about him. “It took me a year to find out that Chloe isn’t mine. I’m not her father.”

“Oh, Chris.” Harper sadly sighed as she squeezed his hand and he linked their fingers together. Such an intimate touch caused a warm feeling to spread through both their arms and straight through their chests. At that moment, if Harper could be granted one wish, she’d wish to take away any pain from Chris’s heart. It was such a pure moment for both of them.

To raise a child for a year believing that she was yours, only to have the rug pulled out from under you, must have been terrible for him. Let alone finding out that the wife you were madly in love with had cheated and kept such a huge secret. No wonder Chris was here in a cursed villa for sad and broken men. It simply wasn’t fair.

“Some blood test that we had done.” Chris huffed, as he played with Harper’s fingers in his hand. Her comfort was making him stronger and he didn’t want to stop touching her. “Dumb luck that I ever found out. But based on our blood types, it’s impossible that I could be her biological father. But the kicker was, I had no idea that Adele had cheated on me.” Chris confessed, bewilderment thick in his voice. “I mean that, I really do. I replay every moment again and again and I didn’t have the slightest fucking clue. People can usually see something like this coming; maybe they’re drifting apart, or bored with each other. But not me. The day that I found out about Chloe, I still loved Adele as much as I did the day I married her….such a dumbass.”

“It’s not your fault that you didn’t see it coming…” Harper tried to console him. “I had no idea that Zac had a double life. You can’t be so hard on yourself for not knowing.”

“But you see, I’m paid very handsomely because I’m the shark that walks into boardrooms and can read people like a book in order to get what I want out of them. But in reality, I’m the poor sap that couldn’t even tell that my wife had been having an affair under my nose for over three fucking years! Three years! It’s not like she just met some guy one night in a moment of weakness.”

“Okay, that sucks.” Harper agreed as she took her hand away from him and tucked her hair behind her ears. She felt the loss of their physical connection deeply and tried to shake off the confusing feeling. “So how did you end up here?”

“Jonathan gave me the same spiel that he probably gave you about this place.” Chris shrugged. He could still feel the warmth of Harper’s hand against his palm and resisted the urge to reach out and hold her hand again. “But you see, at first, I really thought I was coping when I first found out. I moved out of our house the night I confronted her and she admitted it. But at the time, Adele made it sound like it was a one time thing. After that, I went on a bender and was drunk as a skunk for about a week; trying to figure out if I could forgive her.”

“Nice. I drank my mini bar dry, too.” Harper held up her shot glass and did another shot remembering how she had drunk dialed her dad the night she had found out about Zac and Maddison like a pathetic idiot. Best to leave that part out, Harper decided as she played with her empty glass.

“But I realized that I couldn’t forgive her. Not for so much for the cheating….but for the lies. For not telling me that I wasn’t Chloe’s father. Chris explained as he filled up both their shot glasses and accidentally spilled some on the bar.

“I can understand that.” Harper sighed. “There are just some things that are impossible to get passed…” Being unable to forgive someone you cared about was a subject that Harper was all too familiar with.

“So my brother Scott cleaned me up, and once I was done feeling sorry for myself, I filed for divorce. I wanted to be a father so badly, and you know, when I was home, I wasn’t that bad at the whole dad thing, to tell you the truth.” Chris drunkenly boasted and for some reason Harper believed him wholeheartedly. “Our marriage was over, but I thought I could still be Chloe’s dad. That whole year had to count for something, right?”

“Of course.” Harper quickly confirmed with a sharp nod of her head. But soon realized that Chris was sitting here with her in Italy and not with Chloe in Boston.

“Adele wasn’t having it.” Chris bitterly recounted. “As soon as she got served with divorce papers, she became impossible. Then, before I knew it, her and the biological father were making decisions about Chloe and freezing me out. I had no legal standing. I had to walk away from my daught…I had to walk away from Chloe.” Chris could barely finish through the hard lump in his throat.

“Oh, Chris.” Harper whispered. Her heart was breaking for him. She’d spent most of her life wishing that her father cared about her half as much as Chris cared about a child that wasn’t even his.

“My family was devastated. My mom especially. Losing a grandchild like that…” Chris sadly sighed as if the whole weight of the world was on his shoulders. Thinking of how badly he’d disappointed his mother was torture. “But, believe it or not, I was getting right with things and was ready to start over…or at least, I was ready to try and start my life over again.”

“Really?” Harper hiccuped, not really believing it would be so easy for him to bounce back after such a loss.

“Probably not. But it felt like it for a minute.” Chris chuckled at Harper’s blunt drunken cuteness. He really liked it when Harper called him out; she was the mirror opposite of his ex wife. “Maybe I was just doing a pretty good job of faking it. But then the other shoe dropped.”

“Dun dun dun.” Harper mocked in a cheesy voice.

“Pretty much.” Chris charmingly smiled.

“How could there possibly be another shoe to drop after all of that?”

“Well, you haven’t met my ex wife.” Chris challenged with a raised eyebrow. “Adele came to my office right before a big interview and dropped the mother of all bombs.”

“No pun intended.” Harper giggled into her shot glass.

“Ha!” Chris laughed loudly. He couldn’t believe that recounting the worst thing that had ever happened to him could be so much fun. But Harper had a way about her that was impossible for him not to enjoy. “She stood in my office and refused the scotch I handed her and told me that she was pregnant. And guess what? Surprise surprise, she had no idea who the fucking father was…again! So much for her cheating on me and it being a one time thing, huh?”

“Oh, shit.” Harper gulped, regretting all of the alcohol that she had drank because trying to process all of this information was making her head spin. “So what you’re saying is, this new baby might actually be yours?”

“Maybe. It’s a coin toss. After the cat was out of the bag, Adele decided to stop lying and told me that she’s been fucking the same bastard for years.” Chris angrily spat out as he felt his wife’s betrayal wash over him all over again. “Some fucking architect that she went to high school with. It just fucking broke me….completely broke me. I never really knew her at all.” Chris confessed through the hard lump in his throat as he ran his hands through his long unkempt hair. “Maybe I never knew who I was either…”

“I understand that feeling very well.” Harper confessed in a near whisper. “April’s right, I can be such a dummy sometimes. After she Googled you, I thought that you’d been cheating on your wife this whole time. I’m so sorry…I’m just another person that’s failed you. I shouldn’t have thought the worst, that wasn’t fair.”

“You haven’t failed me, Dylan…not you. You’ve kept me on my toes and shook me out of the misery I’ve been wading through for months.” Chris opened his heart and confessed without thinking. “But I’ve never cheated on anyone in my whole life.” Chris solemnly confessed as he looked Harper in the eyes in order to make himself perfectly clear. “Not once. I’m not perfect, but it’s not my style and it never will be.”

“Same.” Harper sadly smiled. “So, that’s why you came to Italy. Then six month later you meet a crazy brunette with a bunch of dogs that feeds you your weight in pasta and makes you smoke outside?”

“I am trying to quit, by the way.” Chris quipped before he told her the rest of his story. “But I needed to completely implode first before I jumped on the company jet with just the clothes on my back and tried my luck at the whole Italian handyman caretaker game.” Chris quietly confessed as he hung his head. “Needless to say, after Adele left my office that day, I bombed the big interview I had to do at the children’s hospital an hour later.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah. Something about being in the hospital where Chloe was born surrounded by kids her age and newborn babies.” Chris scoffed at his past mistakes. “I was a giant blubbering mess and it wasn’t a good look to have the new face of a huge multi-million dollar corporation have a full on meltdown live on national tv.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Chris” Harper pleaded with him when she could tell that he was still angry with himself. “You’re only human.”

“Being only human doesn’t exactly inspire people to invest their hard earned money, though, does it.” Chris sang out in a defeated voice. “I’m good at my job. Maybe too good sometimes. But after that interview, I just couldn’t wait around to find out if the baby was mine or not. It was either retirement or sabbatical, but either way, I had to get out of town. Jonathan stepped in because he wanted to keep me on the payroll.”

“You must be really important to him if he wasn’t willing to cut his losses and give up on you.” Harper praised, managing to put away her jealousy and mean every single word. Chris was a special man, anyone could see that. Her father was lucky to have him working for him and now that she knew him better, she’d be super pissed at her dad if he screwed Chris over.

“Maybe.” Chris sighed. “Or maybe he just felt guilty about all the long hours I put in for him over the years.”

“Jonathan Dylan worry about long hours?” Harper incredulously laughed. “He’s always been a workaholic, that doesn’t sound right.”

“After the hospital debacle, when I was trying to submit my resignation, I told him all about Chloe, Adele, and the new baby. Instead of firing me, he told me that he knew first hand what hours like that did to marriages and he regretted never sending me home to my family.” Chris explained, more to himself than to Harper. “Maybe, if I had been around more, Adele wouldn’t have… I dunno. Well, anyway, Jonathan told me that he went through a bad break up once and it nearly killed him and he didn’t want me to go through the same thing.”

“My mom. She left him when I was six.” Harper explained in a small voice. “He was never around and there were one too many broken promises, I guess. I haven’t seen her since.”

“This is the most depressing drinking game I’ve ever played.” Chris smiled his wolfish grin at her and felt a warm feeling spread through his chest when Harper smiled back and started to laugh. For some reason reliving all his trauma felt a little easier with her and for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why.

“Hungry?” Harper smiled with a wink, knowing full well what Chris’s answer would be.

The more they knew about each other the stronger their affection for each other seemed to grow. Neither were exactly sure if they were developing romantic feelings, or if they were becoming closer friends. But either way, something was changing between them and food was a lot easier than addressing the electric energy that seemed to be flowing between them at the moment.

But as they sat in the kitchen and drunkenly laughed over the slightest things as they ate, rain begin to fall against the large patio window.

“Another storm? Great.” Harper sighed but started giggling at herself when she drunkenly hiccuped. “So much for me sleeping tonight…”

“Come on, Dylan.” Chris smiled as he wiped his mouth with his napkin and tossed it on his empty plate. “I’ll tuck you in. I’m the new Monster Detective, remember?”

“Holly is the best, isn’t she.” Harper smiled a giant goofy smile when she thought about her god daughter.

Harper was mesmerized by twinkle in Chris’s eye when she mentioned Holly. But now that she knew him better, Harper knew that he was thinking of the time that he had spent with Chloe when he believed that he was her father. The two of them seemed to click at that moment over their shared love of children. It was a nice moment that, thanks to the alcohol, neither one of them was freaked out by. Being together and sharing more intimate parts of themselves felt easy, as if they had known each other for years.

But as graceful as Harper might be in the pool, she was not very stealthy during their drunken walk up to the villa’s master suite. Harper could barely walk in a straight line and Chris tried his best not to laugh at her as she grabbed his arm to steady herself.

“Shh!” Chris giggled like a little kid as they passed the guest rooms, hoping that they didn’t wake up the whole house. Harper pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, but in doing so, managed to stumble over her own feet somehow. “You’re the worst, Dylan!” Chris whispered as he swiftly picked her up and carried her as if she weighed nothing at all.

Harper helped him open her bedroom door and Chris laid her down on her bed and covered her with a blanket as if he were tucking in a child.

“Read me a story?” Harper giggled until she let out a very unlady like snort that made both of them laugh even louder.

“Don’t push your luck, Dylan.” Chris chuckled at her cuteness.

“I’m so sorry, Chris.” Harper sighed as she started to calm down.

“For what?”

“I’ve been so…I dunno, so guarded and cold with you since I got here.” Harper shrugged as her eyelids started to get heavier and heavier. “I’m usually not such a stick in the mud…once upon a time, I was a fun person…”

“I have no doubt.” Chris smirked. He believed her and had a feeling that there was a lot more to Harper Dylan than he had originally believed. So much so, that Chris had a hard time understanding how her asshole husband could have hurt her so badly. All it took was a slap across the face in the pool to realize that she was different and hurting her, in any way, just wasn’t an option for him.

“I’ve just been so broken lately… but you’re a good guy.” Harper mumbled as she nestled into her pillow and felt sleep quickly overcoming her. Thankfully, the copious amount of tequila that Harper had drank made her magically forget all about the rain that had begun to pour outside. A fact that would have usually filled her heart with dread and made sleep impossible.

“I don’t know about that.” Chris whispered as he watched her sleep for a moment. Harper looked so little alone in the big king size bed. But no sooner that thought crossed his mind, Penny jumped up in bed beside her and took up the rest of the room. “You look after, Pen.”

“I’m sure you were a really good dad.” Harper wistfully sighed, without opening her eyes. “Chloe was lucky to have you in her life.”

As drunk as he was, Chris felt those words with every single fibre of his being and didn’t know what to say. When he believed that Chloe was his daughter, he wasn’t the best father in the world; more times than not work regrettably came first. But Chris had loved Chloe more than he ever thought he was capable of loving another human being. He’ll always carry her in his heart and would have kept on loving her as her father, if Adele didn’t want her architect to fill that role for Chloe now that the truth was out in the open.

Chris had no idea how long he stood there at the foot of Harper’s bed thinking about the good times with Chloe and what Harper had said in her sleep. But soon the storm picked up and a loud clap of thunder broke him out of his thoughts and made Harper whimper in her sleep.

“Shhh, Harper.” Chris soothed as he leaned down and brushed some of her hair away from her face. “I’m here, don’t worry. You’re safe.”

Harper was quickly lulled back to sleep but Chris wasn’t sure what to do. The storm was picking up and getting louder and he hated the idea of leaving her knowing how much she hated being alone during times like this.

Chris considered spending the night in the small loveseat on the other end of the room, but when Penny suddenly jumped off the bed and curled up in a ball by the door, Chris’s drunk mind decided that there wouldn’t be any harm in taking Penny’s place beside Harper.

He’d deal with the consequences in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading guys! BTW I'm a total sucker for feedback! :)


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